-   I  •  HA! 


Romance 
Seminar 


SAN  DIEGO 


THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE 


OF 


DANTE'S   "DIYINA   COMMEDIA1 


BY 

W.   T.\  HARRIS 


HG./3.I3S 


NEW   YORK 
D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY 

1889 


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COPYBIGHT,  1889. 
BY  W.  T.  HARRIS. 

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TO 
MRS.    BEVERLY    ALLEN, 

OF  ST.  LOUIS,   MISSOURI, 

IN    MEMORY    OF    THE    HOSPITABLE    ENTERTAINMENT    AND    ENCOURAGEMENT 
THAT    SHE    EXTENDED    TO    THE    ST.    LOUIS    ART    SOCIETY 

AND    TO    KINDRED    ENTERPRISES 

IN    THE    YEARS    WHEN    THESE    STUDIES    BEGAN, 

THIS    BOOK    IS    GRATEFULLY    INSCRIBED 

BY    THE    AUTHOR. 


PEEFACE. 


To  this  essay  on  the  spiritual  significance  of  the  "  Divina  Corn- 
media"  I  prefix  a  few  words,  interesting  only  to  the  few  who 
study  works  of  literature  for  spiritual  insight.  Such  insight  is  of 
very  slow  growth,  and  though  I  cannbt  be  permitted  to  claim  any- 
thing more  than  a  very  feeble  approach  to  it  in  the  reflections 
which  I  bring  forward  here,  yet  I  know  that  the  theme  dignifies 
the  writer,  and  that  the  circumstances  of  a  struggle  to  attain  a 
high  object  are  worthy  of  mention,  even  if  the  success  of  the 
struggle  is  not  great. 

My  first  reading  in  Dante  began  as  early  as  1858,  and  continued 
at  intervals  for  four  years,  by  which  time  I  had  completed  only 
the  "  Inferno,"  studying  it  superficially  in  the  original  and  using 
Carlyle's  translation  as  a  sort  of  dictionary  and  general  guide  to 
its  meaning — perhaps  better  described  in  college  slang  as  a  "  pony  " 
or  "  crib."  I  read  also  the  translations  of  Wright  and  Gary  of  the 
"  Purgatorio  "  and  "  Paradiso  "  at  this  time. 


6  Preface. 

The  poem  had  attractive  poetic  passages  for  me  at  the  time,  but 
as  a  vision  of  the  future  state  of  any  portion  of  mankind  I  could 
not  accept  it.  Its  horrors  repelled  me.  After  this  I  began  to 
look  for  some  point  of  view  whence  I  could  see  a  permanent  truth 
in  the  poem.  The  possibility  of  an  inner  meaning  that  would 
reconcile  me  to  the  outer  form  of  a  work  of  art  I  had  already 
learned  in  1861  by  studying  landscape  painting  and  afterward  by 
a  like  study  of  Beethoven's  'masterpieces  and,  more  especially,  of 
Schumann's  "Pilgrimage  of  the  Rose"  and  Mendelssohn's  "Song 
of  Praise." 

The  "  Last  Judgment,"  by  Michel  Angelo,  I  had  begun  to 
study  as  early  as  1863  in  an  outline  engraving,  and  by  1865  a  per- 
manent meaning  had  begun  to  dawn  upon  me.  I  saw  that  the 
picture  presented  symbolically  the  present  condition  of  the  saints 
and  sinners,  not  as  they  seem  to  themselves  and  others,  but  as  they 
are  in  very  truth.  It  placed  them  under  the  form  of  eternity,  to 
use  the  expressive  phrase  of  Spinoza,  "Sub  specie  ceternitatis" 
At  once  Dante's  "  Inferno  "  also  became  clear,  as  having  substan- 
tially the  same  meaning.  I  saw  that  the  great  sculptor  and  painter 
had  derived  his  ideas  from  the  poet.  The  ideas  of  Thomas  Car- 


Preface.  7 

lyle,  in  his  chapter  on  "  Natural  Supernaturalism  "  in  the  "  Sartor 
Resartus,"  seemed  to  me  to  offer  a  parallel  thought  to  the  "  Last 
Judgment."  Remove  the  illusion  of  time,  and  thus  bring  together 
the  deed  and  its  consequence,  and  you  see  it  under  the  form  of 
eternity.  So,  too,  paint  the  deed  with  colors  derived  from  all  its 
consequences,  and  you  will  picture  its  final  or  ultimate  judg- 
ment. This  interpretation  I  wrote  out  in  1868  and  read  to  a  circle 
of  friends,  sometimes  called  "  The  St.  Louis  Art  Society,"  and  it 
was  published  in  the  April  number  of  the  "  Journal  of  Specula- 
tive Philosophy"  for  1869,  under  the  title  "Michel  Angelo's  Last 
Judgment."  I  quote  below  the  passage  in  which  I  connected  the 
views  of  the  sculptor  and  the  poet. 

It  was  about  this  time  (1869)  that  it  occurred  to  me  that  there 
is  a  threefold  view  of  human  deeds.  First,  there  is  the  deed 
taken  with  the  total  compass  of  its  effects  and  consequences — this 
is  the  picture  of  the  "  Inferno." 

Secondly,  there  is  the  evil  deed  seen  in  its  secondary  effects  by 
way  of  reaction  on  the  doer — a  process  of  gradual  revelation  to 
the  doer  that  his  deed  is  not  salutary  either  for  himself  or  for 
others.  The^  evil  doer  at  first  does  not  see  that  his  being  is  so 


8  Preface. 

closely  connected  with  the  being  of  society  that  if  he  does  injury 
to  his  fellows,  thinking  to  derive  selfish  benefit  at  the  expense  of 
others,  he  always  works  evil  to  himself  sooner  or  later.  He  thinks 
that  his  cunning  is  sufficient  to  secure  the  good  to  himself,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  avoid  the  reaction  of  evil  on  himself.  But 
the  real  process  of  reaction  which  comes  with  time  teaches  him 
the  lesson  of  the  impossibility  of  divorcing  the  individual  doer 
from  the  consequences  of  his  deeds.  This  secondary  process  of 
reaction  is  a  purifying  process  in  so  far  as  it  teaches  this  lesson  to 
the  evil  doer.  He  cannot  escape  purification  to  the  extent  that  he 
becomes  enlightened  by  the  wisdom  of  this  experience. 

If  he  sees  that  he  has  to  receive  the  consequences  of  his  deeds, 
he  must  needs  acquire  the  habit  of  considering  the  ultimate  effects 
of  actions  ;  he  will  renounce  deeds  that  can  end  only  in  pain  and 
repression  of  normal  growth. 

Hence  a  third  aspect  of  human  deeds  becomes  manifest — the 
purified  action  which  emits  only  such  deeds  as  build  up  the  social 
whole  affirmatively,  and  consequently  return  upon  the  doer  to 
bless  him  continually.  The  purified  human  will  dwells  in  the 
"  Paradiso,"  while  during  the  process  of  purification  it  is  in  the 


Preface.  9 

"  Purgatorio."  It  is  in  purgatory  so  long  as  it  is  in  the  state  of 
being  surprised  by  the  discovery  that  its  selfish  deeds  invariably 
bring  their  punishment  upon  the  doer,  and  so  long  as  the  individ- 
ual still  hesitates  to  renounce  utterly  and  entirely  the  selfish  deed. 
This  renunciation,  of  course,  takes  place  when  the  soul  has  thor- 
oughly accustomed  itself  to  seeing  the  selfish  deed  and  its'  conse- 
quences in  one  unity ;  then  its  loveliness  has  entirely  departed. 
The  taste  of  a  poison  may  be  sweet  to  the  mouth  of  a  child,  but 
it  soon  produces  painful  gripes.  The  child  learns  to  associate  the 
sweet  taste  and  the  gripes  with  the  mental  picture  of  the  poison,  and 
now  the  very  sight  of  it  becomes  loathsome.  When  temptation 
is  no  longer  possible,  the  child  is  purified  as  regards  this  danger. 

From  1870  to  1880  every  year  brought  me  seemingly  valuable 
thoughts  on  some  part  of  Dante's  great  work.  I  presented  these 
views  in  lectures  to  audiences  from  time  to  time.  In  the  summer 
and  fall  of  1883  I  made  new  studies  on  the  whole  poem,  and  gave 
a  course  of  ten  lectures  to  a  St.  Louis  audience  in  1884  (January 
to  March).  The  present  paper,  which  was  written  in  1886  for  the 
Concord  School  of  Philosophy,  is  a  summary  of  the  St.  Louis 
course,  with  marginal  notes  added  at  this  time. 


10  Preface. 

In  1886  I  came  into  possession  of  a  copy  of  Scartazzini's  essay, 
"Ueber  die  Congruenz  der  Siinden  in  Dante's  Holle,"  and  discov- 
ered that  many  of  the  conjectures  as  to  the  relation  between  sins 
and  punishments  in  the  "  Inferno  "  which  I  had  set  forward  in 
these  lectures  were  already  the  property  of  the  Dante  public 
through  that  distinguished  scholar's  paper  in  the  Annual  of  the 
German  Dante  Society  ("  Jahrb.  d.  deutschen  Dante  Gesellschaft," 
vol.  iv,  1877).  In  this  very  valuable  article  Scartazzini  frequent- 
ly quotes  with  approval  the  interpretations  of  Karl  Graul,  who 
seems  to  have  suggested  many  happy  explanations  of  the  sym- 
bolism.1 One  would  wish  to  see  this  work  of  Graul  reproduced 
in  English.  Meanwhile  I  expect  to  publish  in  the  next  number 
of  my  Journal  the  essay  of  Scartazzini,  which  has  been  trans- 
lated by  Miss  Thekla  Bernays,  of  St.  Louis,- for  the  purpose. 

Had  I  met  with  Graul's  work  twenty-five  years  ago,  when  I  first 


1  In  the  "  Harvard  University  Bulletin,"  "  Biographical  Contributions,  Edited  by  Jus- 
tin Windsor,  No.  7,  the  Dante  Collections  in  Harvard  College  and  Boston  Public  Libra- 
ries, Part  I,  by  William  Coolidge  Lane,  1885,"  I  find  the  work  of  Graul  named  under 
No.  208  :  "  Gottliche  Komoedie  in's  Deutsche  uebertragen,  und  historisch,  aesthetisch, 
und  vornehmlich  theologisch  erlautert  von  Karl  Graul.  Leipzig,  1843."  Only  the  "In- 
ferno "  published. 


Preface.  11 

began  to  see  the  inner  meaning  of  the  poem,  I  should  have  adopted 
it  as  my  guide.  Graul's  volume  bears  the  imprint  of  1843  ;  but 
Scartazzini's  essay  did  not  appear  until  18T7,  or  after  my  views 
had  taken  shape. 

In  matters  of  interpreting  myths  and  symbols  there  is  so  wide 
a  margin  for  arbitrary  exercise  of  fancy  that  it  must  be  regarded 
as  a  strong  evidence  of  the  probable  truthfulness  of  a  theory  when 
two  entirely  independent  readers  arrive  at  the  same  results  in  de- 
tail. At  least  I  have  been  much  strengthened  in  my  own  views, 
and  have  gained  in  respect  for  my  own  way  of  studying  the  poem 
on  reading  the  thoughts  of  the  greatest  of  living  Dante  scholars 
and  finding  so  many  coincidences. 

(From  an  Essay  on  Michel  Angelo's  "  Last  Judgment  "  in  the  "  Journal  of  Speculative 
Philosophy"  for  April,  1869.) 

"Michel  Angelo  passes  by  all  subordinate  scenes  and  seizes  at 
once  the  supreme  moment  of  all  History — of  the  very  world  itself 
and  all  that  it  contains.  This  is  the  vastest  attempt  that  the 
Artist  can  make,  and  is  the  same  that  Dante  has  ventured  in  the 
'  Divina  Commedia.' 


12  Preface. 

"  In  Religion  we  seize  the  absolute  truth  as  a  process  going  on 
in  Time:  the  deeds  of  humanity  are  judged  'after  the  end  of  the 
world.'  After  death  Dives  goes  to  torments,  and  Lazarus  to  the 
realm  of  the  blest. 

"  The  immense  significance  of  the  Christian  idea  of  Hell  as  com- 
pared with  the  Hades  of  Greek  and  Roman  Mythology  we  cannot 
dwell  upon.  This  idea  has  changed  the  hearts  of  mankind.  That 
man  by  will  determines  his  destiny,  and  that  "between  right  and 
wrong  doing  there  is  a  difference  eternally  fixed  " — this  dogma  has 
tamed  the  fierce  barbarian  blood  of  Europe  and  is  the  producer  of 
what  we  have  of  civilization  and  freedom  in  the  present  time. 
In  the  so-called  heathen  civilizations  there  is  a  substratum  of  fate 
presupposed  under  all  individual  character  which  prevents  the 
complete  return  of  the  consequences  of  individual  acts  upon  their 
author.  Thus  the  citizen  was  not  made  completely  universal  by 
the  laws  of  the  state  as  in  modern  times.  The  Christian  doctrine 
of  Hell  is  the  first  appearance  in  a  conceptive  form  of  this  deep- 
est of  all  comprehensions  of  Personality ;  and  out  of  it  have 
grown  our  modern  humanitarian  doctrines,  however  paradoxical 
this  may  seem. 


Preface.  13 

"In  this  supreme  moment  all  worldly  distinctions  fall  away,  and 
the  naked  soul  stands  before  Eternity  with  naught  save  the  pure 
essence  of  its  deeds  to  rely  upon.  All  souls  are  equal  before  God 
so  far  as  mere  worldly  eminence  is  concerned.  Their  inequality 
rests  solely  upon  the  degree  that  they  have  realized  the  Eternal 
will  by  their  own  choice. 

"  But  this  dogma  as  it  is  held  in  the  Christian  Religion  is  not 
merely  a  dogma ;  it  is  the  deepest  of  speculative  truths.  As  such 
it  is  seized  by  Dante  and  Michel  Angelo,  and  in  this  universal 
form  every  one  must  recognize  it  if  he  would  free  it  from  all  nar- 
rowness and  sectarianism.  The  point  of  view  is  this:  The  whole 
world  is  seized  at  once  under  the  form  of  Eternity  ;  all  things  are 
reduced  to  their  lowest  terms.  Every  deed  is  seen  through  the 
perspective  of  its  own  consequences.  Hence  every  human  being 
under  the  influence  of  any  one  of  the  deadly  sins — Anger,  Lust, 
Avarice,  Intemperance,  Pride,  Envy,  and  Indolence — is  being 
dragged  down  into  the  Inferno  just  as  Michel  Angelo  has  depicted. 
On  the  other  hand,  any  one  who  practises  the  cardinal  virtues — 
Prudence,  Justice,  Temperance,  and  Fortitude — is  elevating  him- 
self toward  celestial  clearness. 


14  Preface. 

"  If  any  one  will  study  Dante  carefully  he  will  find  that  the 
punishments  of  the  '  Inferno '  are  emblematical  of  the  very  states 
of  mind  one  experiences  when  under  the  influence  of  the  passions 
there  punished. 

"  To  find  the  punishment  for  any  given  sin,  Dante  looks  at  the 
state  of  rnind  which  it  causes  in  the  sinner,  and  gives  it  its  appro- 
priate emblem. 

"  The  angry  and  sullen  are  plunged  underneath  deep  putrid 
mud,  thus  corresponding  to  the  state  of  mind  produced  by  anger. 
If  we  try  to  understand  a  profound  truth,  or  to  get  into  a  spirit- 
ual frame  of  mind,  when  terribly  enraged,  we  shall  see  ourselves 
in  putrid  mud,  and  breathing  its  thick,  suffocating  exhalations. 
So,  too,  those  who  yield  to  the  lusts  of  the  flesh  are  blown  about 
in  thick  darkness  by  violent  winds.  The  avaricious  carry  heavy 
weights ;  the  intemperate  suffer  the  eternal  rain  of  foul  water, 
hail,  and  snow  (dropsy,  dyspepsia,  delirium  tremens,  gout,  apo- 
plexy, etc.). 

"  So  Michel  Angelo  in  this  picture  has  seized  things  in  their 
essential  nature  :  he  has  pierced  through  the  shadows  of  time,  and 
exhibited  to  us  at  one  view  the  world  of  humanity  as  it  is  in  the 


Preface.  15 

sight  of  God,  or  as  it  is  in  its  ultimate  analysis.  Mortals  are  there, 
not  as  they  seem  to  themselves  or  to  their  companions,  but  as  they 
are  when  measured  by  the  absolute  standard — the  final  destiny  of 
spirit.  This  must  recommend  the  work  to  all  men  of  all  times, 
whether  one  holds  to  this  or  that  theological  creed,  for  it  is  the 
Last  Judgment  in  the  sense  that  it  is  the  ultimate  or  absolute  esti- 
mate to  be  pronounced  upon  each  deed,  and  the  question  of  the 
eternal  punishment  of  any  individual  is  not  necessarily  brought 
into  account.  Everlasting  punishment  is  the  true  state  of  all  who 
persist  in  the  commission  of  those  sins.  The  sins  are  indissolubly 
bound  up  in  pain.  Through  all  time  anger  shall  bring  with  it  the 
'putrid-mud  '  condition  of  the  soul;  the  indulgence  of  lustful  pas- 
sions, the  stormy  tempest  and  spiritual  night;  intemperance,  the 
pitiless  rain  of  hail  and  snow  and  foul  water.  The  wicked  sinner 
— so  far  forth  and  so  long  as  he  is  a  sinner — shall  be  tormented 
forever,  for  we  are  now  and  always  in  Eternity.  '  Every  one 
of  us,'  as  Carlyle  says,  'is  a  Ghost.  Sweep  away  the  Illusion  of 
Time ;  glance  from  the  near  moving  cause  to  its  far-distant  mover ; 
compress  the  threescore  years  into  three  minutes — are  we  not  spir- 
its that  are  shaped  into  a  body,  into  an  Appearance,  and  that  fade 


16  Preface. 

away  again  into  air  and  invisibility  ?  We  start  out  of  Nothing- 
ness, take  figure,  and  are  apparitions ;  'round  us,  as  'round  the 
veriest  spectre,  is  Eternity ;  and  to  Eternity  minutes  are  as  years 
rand  aeons.' 

"  Thus  by  the  Divine  Purpose  of  the  Universe — by  the  Abso- 
lute— every  deed  is  seen  in  its  true  light,  in  the  entire  compass  of 
its  effects.  Just  as  we  strive  in  our  human  laws  to  establish  jus- 
tice by  turning  back  upon  the  criminal  the  effects  of  his  deeds,  so, 
in  fact,  when  placed  '  under  the  form  of  Eternity,'  all  deeds  do 
return  to  the  doer ;  and  this  is  the  final  adjustment,  the  '  end  of 
all  things' — it  is  the  Last  Judgment.  And  this  judgment  is  now 
and  is  always  the  only  actual  Fact  in  the  world." 

(From  an  article  on  "  The  Relation  of  Religion  to  Art,"  "  Journal  of  Speculative 
Philosophy,"  April,  1876.) 

"  This  first  great  Christian  poem  (Dante's  '  Divina  Coin- 
media  ')  is  regarded  by  Schelling  as  the  archetype  of  all  Christian 
poetry.  .  .  .  The  poem  embodies  the  Catholic  view  of  life,  and 
for  this  reason  is  all  the  more  wholesome  for  study  by  modern 
Protestants.  The  threefold  future  world — Inferno,  Purgatorio, 


Preface.  17 

Paradise — presents  us  the  exhaustive  picture  of  man's  relation  to 
his  deeds.  The  Protestant  '  hereafter '  omits  the  purgatory  but  in- 
cludes the  Inferno  and  Paradise.  What  has  become  of  this  miss- 
ing link  in  modern  Protestant  Art?  we  may  inquire,  and  our  in- 
quiry is  a  pertinent  one,  for  there  is  no  subject  connected  with 
the  relation  of  Religion  to  Art  which  is  so  fertile  in  suggestive 
insights  to  the  investigator.  .  .  . 

"  One  must  reduce  life  to  its  lowest  terms,  and  drop  away  all 
consideration  of  its  adventitious  surroundings.  The  deeds  of  man 
in  their  threefold  aspect  are  judged  in  this  '  mystic,  unfathomable 
poem.'  The  great  fact  of  human  responsibility  is  the  key-note. 
Whatever  man  does  he  does  to  himself.  If  he  does  violence,  he 
injures  himself.  If  he  works  righteousness,  he  creates  a  paradise 
for  himself. 

"Now,  a  deed  has  two  aspects:,  First,  its  immediate  relation 
to  the  doer.  The  mental  atmosphere  in  which  one  does  a  deed  is 
of  first  consideration.  If  a  wrong  or  wicked  deed,  then  is  the  at- 
mosphere of  the  criminal  close  and  stifling  to  the  doer.  The 
angry  man  is  rolling  about  suffocating  in  putrid  mud.  The  incon- 
tinent is  driven  about  by  violent  winds  of  passion.  Whatever 


18  Preface. 

deed  a  man  shall  do  must  be  seen  in  the  entire  perspective  of  its 
effects  to  exhibit  its  relation  to  the  doer.  The  Inferno  is  filled 
with  those  whose  acts  and  habits  of  life  surround  them  with  an  at- 
mosphere of  torture. 

"One  does  not  predict  that  such  punishment  of  each  individual 
is  eternal ;  but  one  thing  is  certain :  that  with  the  sins  there  pun- 
ished, there  is  such  special  torture  eternally  connected.  .  .  . 

"  Wherever  the  sin  shall  be,  there  shall  be  connected  with  it  the 
atmosphere  of  the  Inferno,  which  is  its  punishment.  The  doer  of 
the  sinful  deed  plunges  into  the  Inferno  on  its  commission. 

"  But  Dante  wrote  the  '  Purgatorio,'  and  in  this  portrays  the 
secondary  effect  of  sin.  The  inevitable  punishment  bound  up 
with  sin  burns  with  purifying  flames  each  sinner.  The  immediate 
effect  of  the  deed  is  the  Inferno,  but  the  secondary  effect  is  purifi- 
cation. Struggling  up  the  steep  side  of  purgatory  under  their 
painful  burdens  go  sinners  punished  for  incontinence — lust,  glut- 
tony, avarice,  anger,  and  other  sins  that  find  their  place  of  punish- 
ment also  in  the  Inferno. 

"  Each  evil  doer  shall  plunge  into  the  Inferno,  and  shall  scorch 


Preface.  19 

over  the  flames  of  his  own  deeds  until  he  repents  and  struggles  up 
the  mountain  of  purgatory. 

uln  the  'Paradiso'  we  have  doers  of  those  deeds,  which,  being 
thoroughly  positive  in  their  nature,  do  not  come  back  as  punish- 
ment upon  their  authors. 

"  The  correspondence  of  sin  and  punishment  is  noteworthy. 
Even  our  jurisprudence  discovers  a  similar  adaptation.  If  one 
steals  and  deprives  his  neighbor  of  property,  we  manage  by  our 
laws  to  make  his  deed  glide  off  from  society  and  come  back  on  the 
criminal,  and  thus  he  steals  his  own  freedom  and  gets  a  cell  in 
jail.  If  a  murderer  takes  life,  his  deed  is  brought  back  to  him, 
and  he  takes  his  own. 

"  The  depth  of  Dante's  insight  discovers  to  him  all  human  life 
stripped  of  its  wrappings,  and  every  deed  coming  straight  back 
upon  the  doer,  inevitably  fixing  his  place  in  the  scale  of  happiness 
and  misery.  It  is  not  so  much  a  'last  judgment' of  individual 
men  as  it  is  of  deeds  in  the  abstract,  for  the  brave  man  who  sac- 
rifices his  life  for  another  dwells  in  paradise  so  far  as  he  contem- 
plates his  participation  in  that  deed,  but  writhes  in  the  Inferno  in 


20  Preface. 

so  far  as  he  has  allowed  himself  to  slip,  through  some  act  of  in- 
continence. 

"  If  we  return  now  to  our  question,  What  has  become  of  the 
purgatory  in  modern  literature  ?  a  glance  will  show  us  that  the 
fundamental  idea  of  Dante's  purgatory  has  formed  the  chief 
thought  of  Protestant,  '  humanitarian,'  works  of  art. 

"  The  thought  that  the  sinful  and  wretched  live  a  life  of  reac- 
tion against  the  effects  of  their  deeds  is  the  basis  of  most  of  our 
novels.  Most  notable  are  the  works  of  Nathaniel  Hawthorne  in 
this  respect.  His  whole  art  is  devoted  to  the  portrayal  of  the 
purgatorial  effects  of  sin  or  crime  upon  its  authors.  The  con- 
sciousness of  the  deed  and  the  consciousness  of  the  verdict  of  one's 
fellow-men  continually  burn  at  the  heart,  and  with  slow,  eating 
fires,  consume  the  shreds  of  selfishness  quite  away.  In  the 
'  Marble  Faun '  we  have  the  spectacle  of  an  animal  nature  be- 
trayed by  sudden  impulse  into  a  crime ;  and  the  torture  of  this 
consciousness  gradually  purifies  and  elevates  the  semi-spiritual 
being  into  a  refined  humanity. 

"  The  use  of  suffering,  even  if  brought  on  by  sin  and  error,  is 
the  burden  of  our  best  class  of  novels.  George  Eliot's  '  Middle- 


Preface.  2 1 

march,'  'Adam  Bede,'  'Mill  on  the  Floss,'  and  '  Romola' — with 
what  intensity  these  portray  the  spiritual  growth  through  error 
and  pain ! 

"Thus,  if  Protestantism  has  omitted  Purgatory  from  its  Relig- 
ion, certainly  Protestant  literature  has  taken  it  up  and  absorbed 
it  entire." 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 


SECTION  PAGE 

1.  Introduction 27 

2.  Dante  turns  from  Politics  to  Literature "...  41 

3.  In  what  sense  Hell  is  Eternal 45 

4.  Punishment  of  the  Pusillanimous     .........  53 

5.  Why  Infants  and  Heathen  Sages  are  in  the  Limbo   ......  54 

6.  The  Punishments  of  the  Incontinent 57 

7.  The  Relation  of  Sloth  to  Anger  among  the  Mortal  Sins 60 

8.  What  Form  of  Heresy  is  a  Daughter  of  Sloth  ?                  63 

9.  The  Punishment  of  the  Violent 65 

10.  The  Daughters  of  Envy  :  Ten  Species  of  Fraud 67 

11.  The  Circles  of  Treachery,  the  Daughter  of  Pride 73 

12.  The  Spiritual  Sense  of  Purgatory     . .         .  75 

13.  The  Entrance  to  Purgatory 76 

14.  Church  and  State 82 

15.  The  Purgatorial  Stairs 90 

16.  The  First  Terrace :  Purification  from  Pride       . 93 

1 7.  Second  Terrace :  Purification  from  Envy  ........  95 

18.  Third  Terrace :  Dante's  Purification  from  Anger 96 

19.  Fourth  Terrace:  Sloth  and  its  Relation  to  the  Other  Mortal  Sins       .         .         .98 

20.  Fifth  Terrace :  Purification  from  Avarice 1 03 

21.  Sixth  Terrace :  Purgation  of  the  Intemperate 104 

22.  Seventh  Terrace :  Dante's  Purification  from  Lust 104 

23.  The  Terrestrial  Paradise  .  .  105 


24  Table  of  Contents. 

SECTION  PAGE 

24.  The  Spiritual  Sense  of  "  Lethe  "       .        .  v 107 

25.  The  Ascent  to  Paradise Ill 

26.  The  Heaven  of  the  Moon.     The  Ritualists 114 

27.  The  Heavens  of  Imperfect  Wills 118 

28.  The  Pusillanimous,  the  Procrastinators,  and  the  Formalists      .         .         .         .118 

29.  The  Heaven  of  Mercury.     The  Ambition  for  Fame 119 

30.  The  Heaven. of  Venus.     Love  as  Limited  to  Special  Persons     .         .         .         .121 

31.  The  Heaven  of  the  Sun.     Theology 124 

32.  The  Heaven  of  Mars.     True  Heroes 128 

33.  The  Heaven  of  Jupiter.     Just  Rulers 129 

34.  The  Doctrine  of  Salvation 130 

35.  The  Heaven  of  Saturn.     Faith,  Hope,  and  Charity 142 

36.  The  Heaven  of  the  Fixed  Stars 143 

37.  The  Highest  Heaven,  the  Empyrean.     The  Rose  of  Paradise  and  the  Vision  of 

God 153 

38.  The  Angelic  Knowing 157 

39.  The  Poetic  Mythos.     What  it  Embodies  ?          .......  162 

40.  The  Sun  Myth.     Its  Spiritual  Significance  as  Physical  Description  of  Mind       .  165 

41.  Homer's  Mythos  of  Hades .  168 

42.  Plato's  Threefold  Future  Life  Described  in  the  "  Phaedo  "         .         .         .         .170 

43.  Plato's  Mythos  of  Er.     The  Purgatory 174 

44.  Virgil's  '*  JSneid."     Descent  of  ^Eneas  to  Orals 180 

45.  Metempsychosis  versus  Eternal  Punishment  in  Hell 185 

46.  Dante's  Mythos  of  the  Formation  of  the  Inferno  and  the  Purgatorial  Mountain.  188 

47.  Dante's  Mythos  of  the  Roman  Empire 190 

48.  The  Minotaur  and  the  Labyrinth  in  the  Light  of  this  Mythos     .         .         .         .  1 94 

49.  Minos  as  Judge  in  the  Light  of  the  Same  Mythos      .         .         .         .         .         .197 

50.  Other  My thologic  Figures  used  by  Dante  .         . 197 


Table  of  Contents.  25 

SECTION  PAGE 

51.  The  Mythos  of  Dante's  "  Purgatorio  " 202 

52.  The  Mythos  of  Dante's  "  Paradiso."     Gnosticism  and  Neoplatonism       .  .         .  203 

53.  This  Mythos  developed  in  the  "  Celestial  Hierarchies  " 208 

54.  The  Heretical  Tendency  of  this  Mythos    .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  211 

55.  The  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity  a  Symbol  of  the  Highest  Truth      .         .         .         .214 

2 


THE  SPIRITUAL  SENSE  OF 
DANTE'S   "DIYINA  COMMEDIA." 


§  1.  Introduction. 

That  a  poem  should  possess  a  spiritual  sense  does  not  seem  to 
the  common  view  to  be  at  all  necessary  to  it.  It  must  have  a 
poetic  structure ;  but  does  a  poetic  structure  involve  a  spiritual 
sense?  It  is  essential  that  a  poem  should  be  built  out  of  tropes 
and  personification.  Its  real  poetic  substance,  in  fact,  is  an  in- 
sight into  the  correspondence  that  exists  between  external  events 
and  situations  on  the  one  hand  and  internal  ideas  and  movements 
of  the  soul  on  the  other.  Rhyme  and  rhythm  are  less  essential 
than  this.  The  true  poet  is  a  creator  in  a  high  sense,  because  he 
turns  hitherto  opaque  facts  into  transparent  metaphors,  or  because 
he  endows  dead  things  with  souls  and  thus  personifies  them.  The 
poet  uses  material  forms,  so  that  there  glows  a  sort  of  morning 
redness  through  them. 


28  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

There  is  something  symbolic  in  a  poem,  but  there  is  quite  as 
much  danger  from  symbolism  and  allegory  in  a  work  of  art  as 
from  philosophy.  If  the  poet  can  think  philosophic  ideas  in  a 
philosophic  form  he  will  be  apt  to  spoil  his  poem  by  attempting 
to  introduce  them  into  its  texture.  An  allegory  is  repellent  to 
the  true  poetic  taste.  The  music  of  a  verse  is  spoiled  by  the  evi- 
dence of  a  forced  rhyme.  So  the  glad  surprise  of  a  newly  discov- 
ered correspondence  between  the  visible  and  invisible  is  unpleas- 
antly suppressed  by  an  intimation  that  it  is  a  logical  consequence 
of  a  previously  assumed  comparison  or  metaphor.  To  force  a 
symbol  into  an  allegory  necessarily  demands  the  sacrifice  of  the 
native  individuality  of  the  facts  and  events  which  follow  in  the 
train  of  the  primary  event  or  situation.  They  must  all  wear  its 
livery,  whereas  fresh  poetic  insight  is  fain  to  turn  each  one  into 
a  new  and  original  revelation  of  eternal  beauty. 

Neither  philosophy  as  such  nor  allegory  can  be  the  best  feature 
of  a  genuine  poem.  Nevertheless,  there  are  certain  great  poems 
which  owe  their  supreme  pre-eminence  to  the  circumstance  that 
they  treat  themes  of  such  universal  significance  that  they  reflect 
the  operation  of  a  supreme  principle  and  its  consequences  in  the 


Dantds  "Divina  Commedia"  29 

affairs  of  a  world,  and  hence  exhibit  a  philosophy  realized,  or  in- 
carnated, as  it  were.  Their  events  and  situations,  too,  being  uni- 
versal types,  may  be  interpreted  into  many  series  of  events  within 
the  world  order,  and  hence  stand  for  so  many  allegories.  Such 
poems  may  be  said  to  have  a  spiritual  sense.  Homer's  "  Iliad," 
and  more  especially  his  "  Odyssey,"  contain  a  philosophy  and 
many  allegories.  Goethe's  "  Faust "  contains  likewise  a  philoso- 
phy, and  its  poetic  types  are  all  allegoric,  without  detriment  to 
their  genuine  poetic  value. 

But  of  all  the  great  world-poems,  unquestionably  Dante's  "  Di- 
vina Commedia"  may  be  justly  claimed  to  have  a  spiritual  sense, 
for  it  possesses  a  philosophic  system  and  admits  of  allegorical 
interpretation.  It  is  par  excellence  the  religious  poem  of  the 
world.  And  religion,  like  philosophy,  deals  directly  with  a  first 
principle  of  the  universe,  while,  like  poetry,  it  clothes  its  uni- 
versal ideas  in  the  garb  of  special  events  and  situations,  making 
them  types,  and  hence  symbols,  of  the  kind  which  may  become 
allegories. 

Homer,  too,  shows  us  the  religion  of  the  Greeks,  but  it  is  an 
art-religion,  having  only  the  same  aim  as  essential  poetry — to  turn 


30  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

the  natural  into  a  symbol  of  the  spiritual.  Dante's  theme  is  the 
Christian  religion,  which  goes  beyond  the  problem  of  transfigur- 
ing nature  and  deals  with  the  far  deeper  problem  of  the  salvation 
of  man.  For  man,  as  the  summit  of  nature,  transfigures  nature 
at  the  same  time  that  he  attains  the  divine.  The  insight  into  the 
divine-human  nature  of  the  highest  principle  of  the  universe,  and 
the  consequent  necessity  of  human  immortality  and  possibility  of 
human  growth  into  divine  perfection,  includes  the  Greek  principle 
as  a  subordinate  phase. 

It  is  proper,  therefore,  to  study  the  spiritual  sense  of  the  great 
poem  of  Dante,  and  to  inquire  into  its  philosophy  and  its  allegory. 
What  is  Dante's  theory  of  the  world  and  what  manner  of  world- 
order  results  from  it  ?  Not  that  we  should  expect  that  the  philo- 
sophic thought  of  a  poet  would  be  of  a  conscious  and  systematic 
order ;  that  would  not  promise  us  so  much.  It  is  rather  his  deep 
underlying  view  of  the  world — so  deep  a  conviction  that  he  knows 
of  no  other  adequate  statement  for  it  than  the  structure  of  his 
poem.  If  an  artist  does  not  feel  that  his  work  of  art  utters  more 
completely  his  thought  than  some  prosaic  statement  may  do  it,  he 
is  not  an  artist. 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  31 

In  tact,  a  poet  may  introduce  a  theory  of  the  world  into  his 
poem  which  is  not  so  deep  and  comprehensive  as  that  implied  in 
the  spiritual  sense  of  his  poem.  This,  we  shall  see,  is  often  true 
in  the  case  of  Dante — that  his  poetic  vision  has  glimpses  of  a 
higher  world-view  than  is  contained  in  his  interpretation  of  the 
philosophy  of  the  school  men  ;  and  his  poetic  discrimination  of  the 
states  of  the  soul  under  mortal  sin  is  deeper  and  truer  than  the 
ethical  scheme  which  he  borrowed  from  that  philosophy. 

Moreover,  although  allegory  is  the  favorite  vehicle  for  religious 
revelation,  and  we  have  in  this,  the  most  religious  of  poems,  a  pre- 
dominating tendency  toward  it,  yet  his  allegory  does  not  cover  (or 
discover)  so  deep  a  spiritual  sense  as  the  genuine  art-structure  of 
his  poem  reveals. 

In  the  beginning,  let  us  call  to  mind  the  fundamental  distinc- 
tion between  Christianity  and  Eastern  religions.  In  the  latter  the 
Absolute  or  Supreme  Principle  is  conceived  as  utterly  without  form 
and  void.  It  is  conceived  as  entirely  lacking  in  particularity,  ut- 
terly devoid  of  attributes,  properties,  qualities,  modes,  and  distinc- 
tions of  any  kind  whatever.  Such  is  the  Brahm  of  the  Hindoo  or 
the  subjective  state  of  Nirvana  of  the  Buddhists.  Such  is  the 


32  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

western  reflection  of  this  thought  at  Alexandria  and  elsewhere  in 
the  doctrines  of  Gnosticism  and  Neo-Platonism.  Basilides  and 
Valentinus,  Proclns  and  Jamblichus,  all  hold  to  an  utterly  indeter- 
minate, formless  first  principle.  As  a  result,  it  follows  that  they 
are  obliged  to  resort  to  arbitrary  and  fanciful  constructions  in  or- 
der to  explain  the  origin  of  a  world  of  finite  creatures. 

Quite  different  is  the  Christian  view  of  the  Absolute.  It  holds 
that  the  Absolute  is  not  formless,  but  the  very  essence  of  all  form — 
pure  form,  pure  self-distinction,  or  self-consciousness,  or  reason. 
For  conscious  personality  is  form  in  the  highest  sense,  because  its 
energy  is  creative  of  form  ;  it  is  self-distinction,  subject  and  object, 
and  hence  in  its  very  essence  an  activity  ;  an  unconditioned  en- 
ergy—  unconditioned  from  without  but  self -conditioned  from 
within. 

In  this  great  idea,  so  radically  differing  from  the  Oriental  thought, 
Christianity  has  a  twofold  support — the  intuition  of  the  Jewish 
prophets  and  the  philosophy  of  the  Greeks. 

The  survey  of  the  entire  realm  of  thought  by  Plato  and  Aris- 
totle has  settled  the  question  as  to  the  possibilities  of  existence. 
There  can  be  no  absolute  which  is  utterly  formless.  Any  absolute 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia."  33 

whatsoever  must  be  thought  of  as  self-determining;  as  a  pure  self- 
active  energy,  of  the  nature  of  thinking  reason,  although  in  degree 
more  comprehensive  than  human  reason  and  entirely  without  its 
intermittencies  and  eclipses. 

An  Absolute  which  is  absolute  form — and  this  means  self-forma- 
tive, self-distinguishing,  and  hence  self-particularizing,  living,  or, 
what  is  the  same,  conscious  personal  being — is  essentially  a  Cre- 
ator. Moreover,  its  creation  is  its  own  self-revelation,  and,  accord- 
ing to  this,  God  is  essentially  a  self-revealing  God.  Hence  Chris- 
tianity is  in  a  very  deep  sense  a  "  revealed  religion,"  for  it  is  the 
religion  not  of  a  hidden  God  who  is  a  formless  absolute,  but  of  a 
God  whose  essence  it  is  to  reveal  Himself,  and  not  remain  hidden 
in  Himself. 

In  the  first  canto  of  the  "  Paradiso"  Dante  reports  Beatrice  as 
laying  down  this  doctrine  of  form  : 

"All  things  collectively  have  an  order  among  themselves,  and 
this  is  form,  which  makes  the  universe  resemble  God."  ' 

Christianity  has  united  in  its  views  the  Jewish  intuition  of  holy 

1  Le  cose  tutte  quante  Hann'  ordine  tra  loro ;  e  questo  d  forma  Che  1'universo  a  Dio 
fa  simigliante. 


34:  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

personality  with  the  Greek  philosophic  conception  of  absolute  Rea- 
son. It  has  not  put  these  ideas  together — so  to  speak — but  has 
reached  a  new  idea  which  includes  and  transcends  them.  More- 
over, the  deepest  thought  of  Roman  national  life  is  in  like  manner 
subsumed  and  taken  up.  While  the  Greek  has  theoretically 
reached  this  highest  principle  of  essential  form  and  the  Hebrew 
has  discovered  it  through  his  heart,  the  Roman  has  experienced  it 
through  his  will  or  volition.  He  has  discovered  that  the  highest 
form  in  the  universe  is  pure  will.  And  this  again  is  only  a  new 
way  of  naming  pure  self-determination,  pure  reason,  or  pure  per- 
sonality. It  sees  the  absolute  form  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
will.  According  to  this,  all  activity  of  the  will  returns  to  the  doer. 
Whatever  man  as  free  will  does,  he  does  to  himself.  Here  is  the 
root  of  Dante's  Divine  Comedy. 

Dante  is  a  Roman,  although  he  has  Teutonic  blood  in  his  veins. 
The  Roman  world-view  preponderates  in  Italy  to  this  day.  Ac- 
cording to  the  view  of  the  absolute  first  principle  as  Will,  each 
being  in  acting  acts  upon  itself  and  thereby  becomes  its  own  fate. 
It  creates  its  environment.  The  responsibility  of  the  free  agent 
is  infinite.  If  it  acts  so  as  to  make  for  itself  an  environment  of 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  35 

deeds  that  are  in  harmony  with  its  freedom,  it  lives  in  the  ''Para- 
diso."  If  it  acts  so  as  to  contradict  its  nature,  it  makes  for  itself 
the  "  Inferno."  All  acts  of  a  free  will  that  do  not  tend  to  create  an 
external  environment  of  freedom  will,  of  course,  result  in  limiting 
the  original  free  will  and  in  building  up  around  it  walls  of  hostile 
fate.  Fate  is  only  a  "  maya  "  or  illusion  produced  by  not  recog- 
nizing the  self-contradiction  involved  in  willing  in  particular  what 
is  contrary  to  the  nature  of  will  in  general. 

Since  the  Absolute  is  free  will,  it  energizes  creatively  to  form  a 
universe  of  free  wills.  But  it  cannot  constrain  wills  to  be  free. 
A  created  being's  will  is  free  to  contradict  its  own  essence  and  to 
defy  the  absolute  Free  Will  of  God. 

Here  is  the  problem  which  exercised  Paul  and  St.  Augustine— 
and  Calvin.  What  is  the  mediation  between  the  free  will  of  the 
Creator  and  the  free  will  of  the  creature  ?  There  can  be  no  con- 
straint of  the  free  will  except  through  itself.  It  makes  for  itself 
its  own  fate.  But  can  it  relieve  itself  from  its  fate  also  by  its  own 
act  \  Here  is  the  all-important  question. 

The  creature  is  a  part  of  creation — each  man  is  only  a  member 
of  humanity.  His  will  utters  deeds  that  affect  for  good  or  ill  his 


36  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

fellow-men.  He  in  turn  is  affected  in  like  manner  by  the  deeds 
of  his  fellows.  Here  is  the  secret  of  the  method  of  the  return 
of  the  deed  upon  the  doer.  The  individual  acts  upon  his  fellow- 
men,  and  they  react  upon  him  according  to  the  quality  of  his  deeds. 

Hence  the  individual  man  by  his  will  creates  his  environment 
through  and  by  means  of  society,  so  that  his  fate  or  his  freedom 
is  the  reflection  of  what  he  does  to  his  fellow-men.  Only  it  is  not 
returned  upon  him  by  his  own  might,  but  by  the  freedom  of  his 
fellow- members  of  society. 

Here  is  the  clew  to  the  question  of  salvation.  The  circle  of  a 
man's  freedom  includes  not  only  his  own  deeds,  but  also  the  reac- 
tion of  society.  Inasmuch  as  the  whole  of  society  stands  to  the 
individual  in  the  relation  of  infinite  to  finite  (for  he  cannot  meas- 
ure its  power),  the  return  of  his  deed  to  him  is  the  work  of  a 
higher  power,  and  his  freedom  is  the  work  of  grace  and  not  the  re- 
sult of  his  own  strength.  This  is  the  conception  of  GRACE  as  it 
occurs  in  the  Christian  thought  of  the  world.  Man  is  free  through 
grace,  and  he  perfects  himself  through  grace,  or  indeed  suffers  evil 
through  grace ;  for  this  conception  of  Grace  includes  Justice  as  one 
of  its  elements. 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  37 

Deeds,  then,  are  to  be  judged  by  their  effect  upon  society, 
whether  they  re-enforce  the  freedom  of  others  or  curtail  that 
freedom.  Man  as  individual  combines  with  his  fellows,  so  as 
to  reap  the  results  of  the  united  effort  of  the  whole.  The  individ- 
ual thus  avails  himself  of  the  entire  species,  and  heals  his  imper- 
fections. 

Looking  at  human  life  in  this  way,  Dante  forms  his  views  of 
the  deeds  of  men,  and  slowly  constructs  the  framework  of  his  three 
worlds  and  fills  them  with  their  people.  His  classification  and 
gradation  of  sins  in  accordance  with  their  effect  on  society  fur- 
nishes the  structure  of  the  first  and  second  parts  of  the  poem. 
His  insight  into  the  subjective  effects  of  these  sins — both  their 
immediate  effect  in  producing  a  mental  atmosphere  in  which  the 
individual  breathes  and  lives  his  spiritual  life,  and  their  mediate 
effect,  which  comes  to  the  individual  after  the  social  whole  reacts 
upon  him  by  reason  of  his  deed — his  insight  into  these  two  effects 
on  the  individual  gives  him  the  poetic  material  for  painting  the 
sufferings  of  the  wicked  and  the  struggles  of  the  penitent. 

There  is  in  many  respects  an  excess  of  philosphic  structure  in 
the  "  Divine  Comedy."  That  there  should  be  three  parts  to  the 


38  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

poem  does  not  suggest  itself  as  a  formalism.  But  that  there 
should  be  exactly  thirty-three  cantos  in  each  part  and,  adding  the 
introductory  canto,  exactly  one  hundred  cantos  in  the  whole,  seems 
an  excess  in  this  respect.  So,  too,  when  we  are  told  that  the  triple 
rhyme  suggests  the  Trinity,  we  find  that  the  suggestion  is  a  vague 
and  trivial  one,  approaching  a  vulgar  superstition.  So,  too,  the 
fact  that  thirty-three  years  suggests  the  years  of  Christ's  earthly 
life.  In  the  second  Treatise  (Chapter  I)  of  his  "  Convito  "  Dante 
tells  us  that  it  is  possible  to  understand  a  book  in  four  different  ways. 
There  is  in  a  poem  a  literal,  an  allegorical,  a  moral,  and  a  mystical 
sense  (litterale,  allegorico,  morale,  anagogico  doe  sovra  sensd). 
As  the  leading  of  Israel  out  of  Egypt  should  signify,  besides  its 
literal  meaning,  mystically  (anagogically)  or  spiritually  the  soul's 
liberation  from  sin — the  exodus  of  the  soul,  as  it  were.  He  says 
the  literal  must  go  first,  because  you  cannot  come  to  the  allegori- 
cal except  through  the  literal;  it  is  impossible  to  come  to  that 
which  is  within  except  through  the  without.  "  The  allegorical 
is  a  truth  concealed  under  a  beautiful  untruth."  The  moral  sense 
of  a  book  is  its  practical  wisdom — what  it  contains  useful  for  prac- 
tical guidance  (a  utilitd  di  loro).  But,  in  spite  of  all  his  in- 


Dante's  " Divina  Commedia"  39 

genuity,  we  must  all,  I  think,  confess  that  Dante's  elaborate  syn- 
tactical analyses  of  his  love  poems  in  the  "  Yita  Nuova,"  as  well 
as  his  disquisitions  in  the"  Convito,"  seem  much  too  artificial,  and 
that  they  become  soon  repugnant  to  us.  They  seem  a  sort  of 
trifling  in  comparison  with  the  grim  earnest  which  the  "  Divine 
Comedy  "  shows.  And  yet  they  furnish,  after  a  sort,  a  key  to  be 
kept  in  hand  while  we  accompany  our  poet  on  his  journey. 

Two  things  strike  us  most  forcibly  after  we  have  begun  to  pene- 
trate the  inner  meaning  of  Dante — namely,  his  fertility  of  genius 
in  inventing  external  physical  symbols  for  the  expression  of  in- 
ternal states  of  the  soul,  and,  secondly,  his  preternatural  psycho- 
logical ability  in  discerning  the  true  relation  between  acts  of  the 
will  and  the  traits  of  character  that  follow  as  a  result  of  the  subse- 
quent reaction.  But  our  first  impression  of  the  poet  must  be  one 
of  horror  at  the  malignancy  of  a  soul  who  could  allow  his  imagi- 
nation to  dwell  on  the  sufferings  of  his  fellow-men,  and  permit  his 
pen  to  describe  them  with  such  painstaking  minuteness.  We  see 
more  of  a  fiend  than  a  man  on  our  first  visit  to  Dante.  But  even 
thus  early  we  are  struck,  in  a  few  instances,  with  the  apt  corre- 
spondence between  the  punishments  of  the  "  Inferno "  and  the 


40  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

actual  state  of  mind  of  the  sinner  on  committing  the  sin.  On  a 
second  acquaintance  these  instances  increase,  and  the  conviction 
gradually  arises  that  Dante  has  done  nothing  arbitrary,  but  all 
things  through  a  deep  sense  of  justice  and  truth  to  what  he  has 
actually  observed  in  the  world  about  him.  After  we  have  come  to 
this  view  we  soon  go  further  and  begin  to  note  the  tenderness  and 
divine  charity  of  this  world-poet,  and  finally  we  are  persuaded 
that  we  see  his  loving  kindness  in  the  very  instances  in  which  at 
first  we  could  see  only  malignant  spite  or  heartless  cruelty. 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia."  41 

I.  THE  "INFERNO." 

§  2.  Dante  turns  from  Politics  to  Literature. 

In  the  year  1300,  at  the  age  of  thirty-five,  Dante  found  himself 
in  the  midst  of  a  gloomy  wood  of  terrestrial  trials,  his  city, 
Florence,  hopelessly  divided  between  factions,  and  Italy  itself  in 
the  midst  of  the  terrible  struggle  between  the  secular  and  spiritual 
powers.  The  growing  power  of  France,  jealous  of  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire,  wishes  to  keep  Germany  out  of  Italy.  The 
Pope,  likewise,  seems  obliged  to  find  his  interest  in  siding  with 
France,  at  least  temporarily.  The  Church  seems  to  have  no  re- 
course for  the  safety  of  its  spiritual  interests  except  in  grasping  at 
civil  power.  The  Crusades  have  brought  immense  wealth  to  the 
cities  of  Italy,  which  lie  on  the  way  between  the  East  and  the 
West.  The  upstart  wealthy  families  in  those  cities  contest  the  su- 
premacy of  the  impoverished  families  of  the  old  nobility.  There 
is  no  solution  of  these  evils.  Each  faction,  if  suppressed  within 


4:2  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

the  city,  at  once  appeals  to  one  of  the  parties  into  which  Italy  is 
divided.  It  obtains  the  aid  of  the  Pope  and  France  on  the  one 
hand,  or  of  the  Emperor  on  the  other,  and,  thus  aided,  regains  its 
power  in  Florence.  Bloody  retaliations,  confiscations,  conflagrations 
ensue.  What  can  Dante  as  Prior  of  a  city  like  Florence  do  ?  He 
banishes  the  leaders  of  both  factions.  But  these  factions  are  not 
isolated,  local  matters.  They  are  merely  symptomatic  manifesta- 
tions of  the  universal  discord — the  two  political  parties  of  Chris- 
tendom— and  cannot  be  cured  by  local  surgery.  France  ap- 
proaches to  aid  one  of  the  banished  parties,  and  the  Pope,  to  whom 
Dante  turns  for  aid,  betrays  his  intention  to  take  advantage  of 
internal  factions  and  foreign  intervention  in  order  to  weaken  the 
power  of  the  Empire  in  Italy.  The  Church,  having  small  political 
power  in  the  way  of  direct  control  over  large  territories,  is  obliged 
to  retain  its  influence  through  the  next  means — to  wit,  money  and 
intrigue.  It  is  evident  enough  that  there  is  no  honorable  career 
left  for  Dante  in  his  native  city.  He  looks  up  to  the  lofty  and 
shining  heights  of  success,  a  worthy  object  for  the  ambition  of  a 
young  man  of  ability,  and  sees  in  his  way  before  him  three  ob- 
stacles. A  leopard  with  spotted  hide,  white  and  black  spots — 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  43 

symbolic  of  the  black  and  white  factions  of  Florence ' — impedes  his 
way,  so  that  he  is  minded  to  go  back  and  give  up  his  worthy  am- 
bition to  reach  the  shining  heights,  but  rather  to  seek  safety  in 
the  obscurity  of  private  life.  But  his  youth,  the  hour  of  the 
morning,  and  the  sweet  season  fill  him  with  hope  that  he  shall  be 
able  to  capture  the  leopard  with  his  spots  and  bring  peace  and 
good  government  to  his  native  city,  when,  lo !  a  lion,  the  sym- 
bol of  France  and  French  interests/  approaches  with  head  erect 


1  Symbolic  of  much  else  also,  as  commentators  have  shown :  "  Symbolic  of  worldly 
pleasure  with  its  fair  outside,"  and  the  quiet  citizen  life  checkered  with  its  small  joys 
and  alternating  cares ;  symbolic  of  sensuality ;  also  of  the  business  of  private  life.     The 
chief  point  is  that  the  "  gaietta  pelle  "  distracts  him  from  the  ascent  and  impedes  him  so 
that  he  is  often  minded  to  return.     The  wolf  and  lion  terrify  him.     But  he  hopes  ("  In- 
ferno," xvi,  106-108),  to  capture  the  leopard  with  his  girdle.    He  thought  that  he  could, 
with  the  girdle  of  his  own  strength,  conquer  the  factions  of  Florence,  up  to  the  time 
when  he  saw  that  these  were  backed  by  the  wolf  and  the  lion.     Or  does  the  girdle  hint 
at  a  contemplated  entrance  of  the  order  of  Franciscans  in  order  to  overcome  his  passion 
for  carnal  pleasure  ?    If  for  la  we  read  alia  gaietta  pelle,  the  leopard  should  be  overcome 
as  something  hostile  and  impeding ;  if  la,  then  it  is  one  of  the  causes  of  good  hope — but 
hope  of  what  ?     Certainly  not  of  ascent  of  the  hill ! — But  this  will  be  discussed  further 
in  another  note. 

2  The  lion  should  be  ambition  or  pride,  according  to  commentators.     But  it  is  not  am- 
bition in  general  that  Dante  encountered,  but  the  special  instance  of  it  in  French  inter- 
ference. 


44  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

and  furious  with  hunger.  The  very  air  quakes.  He  turns  away 
from  before  the  lion,  but  only  to  meet  a  she  wolf  (the  wolf  of  the 
capital  at  Rome,  symbolic  of  that  city,  and  hence  suggesting  the 
papal  court),1  full  of  all  cravings  in  her  leanness,  grasping  for 
money  and  political  power.  Dante  cannot  ascend  on  that  road  to 
the  glorious  summit  of  a  successful  and  honorable  life.  He  turns 
from  politics  to  literature.  Virgil  meets  him  and  informs  him 
that  he  must  take  another  road  if  he  would  attain  his  object.  He 
must  try  to  make  himself  useful  to  his  age  by  holding  up  to  it  its 
true  image,  as  world-poet.  He  must  collect  and  classify  all  man- 
ner of  human  deeds  and  all  manner  of  states  of  the  human  soul 
(antecedent  and  consequent  on  those  deeds)  and  paint  a  vast  pict- 
ure-gallery of  characters  for  the  education  not  only  of  his  native 
city,  nor  even  of  all  Italy,  but  of  all  Europe  and  of  nations  yet 
unborn. 

Accompanied  by  Virgil,  or  the  genius  of  literature,  he  comes  to 


1  So  the  wolf  means  avarice,  but  not  avarice  in  general ;  it  is  only  the  special  instance 
of  it  that  Dante  met  when  he  applied  to  the  papal  court  for  aid  in  suppressing  civil  war 
in  his  native  city.  Note  that  the  wolf  will  be  chased  into  hell  by  the  greyhound,  so  as 
to  no  more  block  the  way  to  the  shining  heights. 


Dantds  "Divina  Commedia"  45 

the  Inferno  and  the  Purgatory.  Accompanied  thereafter  by  the 
divine  science  "  First  Philosophy,"  in  the  person  of  Beatrice, 
he  passes  the  terrestrial  and  celestial  paradises.  Although  his  life 
seems  at  first  a  failure,  in  that  a  public  career  is  closed  for  him, 
yet  it  proves  in  the  event  a  success  in  a  far  higher  sense,  for  his 
service  to  mankind  proves  to  be  more  enduring  than  he  had 
planned.  The  Celestial  Powers  have  overruled  his  counsels,  led 
him  through  Eternal  Places,  and  given  him  a  more  important 
place  on  the  lofty  hill  whose  shoulders  were  clothed  with  the  rays 
of  the  celestial  sun. 

§  3.  In  what  sense  Hell  is  Eternal. 

Over  the  gate  of  the  Inferno  he  reads  the  solemn  words  : 
"  Through  me  is  the  way  into  the  doleful  city ;  through  me  the 
way  among  the  people  lost.  Justice  moved  my  High  Maker ; 
Divine  Power  made  me,  Wisdom  Supreme,  and  Primal  Love. 
Before  me  were  no  things  created,  but  eternal;  and  eternal  I  en- 
dure. Leave  all  hope,  ye  that  enter." — (J.  C.),1  iii,  1-9. 


1  John  Carlyle's  translation  is  marked  (J.  C.). 


46  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

The  Christian  doctrine  of  Hell  and  everlasting  punishment,  at 
first  so  repugnant  to  the  principle  of  divine  charity  and  grace 
which  is  the  evangel  of  the  highest  religion,  needs  philosophic  in- 
terpretation in  order  that  we  may  endure  to  accompany  Dante 
further.  In  the  first  place,  we  remark  that  the  doctrine  of  Hell, 
as  opposed  to  the  heathen  notion  of  Ifades,  expresses  the  insight 
into  the  complete  freedom  of  the  human  will.  In  the  heathen 
view  there  is  always  a  substratum  of  fate  which  limits  man's  free- 
dom and  prevents  the  complete  return  of  his  deed  upon  himself. 
It  is  in  Christianity  that  religion,  for  the  first  time,  conceives 
man  as  perfectly  responsible,  perfectly  free — a  spiritual  totality. 
Hence,  too,  with  Christianity  there  is  possible  now  a  doctrine  of 
immortality  that  has  positive  significance.  Before  Christianity, 
immortality  had  not  been  "  brought  to  light " — i.  e.,  no  immortality 
worth  having.  According  to  Christianity,  man  may  go  forward 
forever  into  knowledge  and  wisdom  and  mutual  brotherly  help- 
fulness in  the  universe,  lifting  up  others,  and  himself  lifted  up  by 
all  the  influences  of  an  infinite  Church,  whose  spirit  is  the  Holy 
Spirit  and  God  Himself. 

If  man  can  determine  himself  or  choose  freely  his  thoughts 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  47 

and  deeds,  he  canjoin  himself  to  the  social  whole,  or  he  can  sun- 
der himself  from  it.  He,  on  the  one  hand,  can  mediate  himself 
through  all  men,  placing  his  personal  interest  at  the  most  distant 
part  of  the  universe  and  seeking  his  own  good  through  first 
serving  the  interest  of  all  others ;  or  he  can  seek  his  selfish  inter- 
est directly  and  before  that  of  all  others  and  in  preference  to 
theirs.  Thus  he  can  make  for  himself  one  of  two  utterly  different 
worlds — an  Inferno  or  a  Paradiso. 

We  are  come  to  one  of  these  places,  as  Virgil  now  informs 
Dante : 

"  We  are  come  to  the  place  where  I  told  thee  thou  shouldst  see 
the  wretched  people  who  have  lost  the  good  of  the  intellect."- 
(J.  C.),  iii,  16-18. 

The  "  good  of  the  intellect "  refers  to  Aristotle's  ethical  doctrine 
of  the  highest  good,  which  is  that  of  the  contemplation  of  God — 
the  vision  of  absolute  Truth  and  Goodness.  The  wicked  do  not 
see  God  revealed  in  the  world  of  nature  and  human  history.  To 
them  God  is  only  another  fiend  more  potent  than  the  fiends  of 
Hell.  They  are  conquered,  but  not  subdued  into  obedience.  To 
them  the  good  seems  an  external  tyrant,  oppressing  them  and  in- 


48  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

flicting  pain  on  them.  This  state  is  Hell.  But  even  Hell  is  the 
evidence  of  Divine  love,  rightly  understood.  For  it  was  made  not 
only  by  "Justice  and  Divine  Power,"  but  also  "by  Wisdom  Su- 
preme and  Primal  Love."  Recall  the  doctrine  already  stated  in 
regard  to  Form.  A  formless  Absolute  cannot  create  real  creatures. 
They  cannot  participate  in  his  substance,  because  that  which  is 
finite  and  limited  can  have  no  substance  if  God  is  without  form 
and  distinctions.  With  the  Christian  idea  God  has  distinctions 
and  self-limitations — pure  form.  With  this  idea  the  finite  can 
participate  in  the  divine  substance  without  annihilation.  Were 
this  blessed  doctrine  not  true,  there  could  be  no  existence  for  finite 
creatures,  even  in  Hell.  For,  unless  the  finite  can  subsist  as  real 
and  true  substance,  there  can  be  no  free  will  and  no  rebellion  of 
the  individual  against  the  species.  Rebellion  against  the  divine 
world-order  would  at  once  produce  annihilation  under  the  heathen 
doctrine  of  a  formless  God.  Even  imperfection  without  rebellion 
would  produce  annihilation. 

But  in  Dante's  Hell  there  is  alienation  from  God  as  a  free  act 
of  the  sinners.  But  God's  hand  is  under  the  sinner  holding  him 
back  from  annihilation.  Although  you  rebel  against  Me,  yet  you 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  49 

shall  not  drop  out  of  My  hand  into  the  abyss  of  Nothingness,  and 
My  hand  shall  sustain  you  and  give  you  participation  in  the  di- 
vine substance.  My  hand  shall  sustain  you,  but  it  will  burn  you 
if  you  sin  and  so  long  as  you  sin,  because  your  freedom  is  used 
against  itself  in  the  act  of  sin. 

"  Before  me,"  says  the  inscription,  "  were  no  things  created,  but 
eternal ;  and  eternal  I  endure."  That  is  to  say,  with  the  crea- 
tion of  finite  things  Hell  is  created,  because  substance,  actual  di- 
vine substance  and  infinitude,  is  given  to  finite  things.  Hence, 
even  their  limitations  are  made  to  have  essential  being,  and  thus 
Hell  is  made  by  the  very  act  of  creating.  It  will  exist,  too,  as 
long  as  the  finite  is  created — that  is,  eternally. 

A  doctrine  of  the  ultimate  annihilation  of  the  wicked  is  a  sur- 
vival of  heathenism — a  doctrine  compatible  only  with  the  doctrine 
of  a  formless  God.  So,  too,  is  the  doctrine  of  the  end  of  proba- 
tion for  the  sinners  in  Hell.  Hell  signifies  the  continuance  of  free 
will  supported  by  Divine  Grace.  Let  free  will  cease,  and  Hell 
ceases.  Let  free  will  cease,  and  individual  immortal  being  lapses 
out  of  spiritual  being  into  mere  physical  existence,  or  at  least  into 
lower  forms  of  life,  and  annihilation  has  taken  effect,  and  the 

3 


50  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

Christian  idea  of  God  as  pure  form,  pure  personality,  at  once  be- 
comes impossible. 

Free  will,  therefore,  necessarily  remains  to  all  people  in  Hell, 
and  so  long  as  Hell  itself  endures.  Hence,  also,  probation  lasts 
forever.  But  probation  does  not  mean  enforced  salvation.  That 
were  equally  impossible,  and  itself  also  the  destruction  of  the 
Christian  idea  of  God  as  pure  form.  Hell  is  the  shadow  of  man's 
freedom  ;  salvation  is  the  substance  of  man's  freedom.  No  sinner 
can  be  compelled  to  repent.  He  must  be  converted  through  his 
freedom  and  not  against  it. 

The  state  of  Hell  is  a  state  of  rebellion  against  the  divine 
world-order.  The  individual  seeks  his  selfish  good  before  the  good 
of  his  fellow-men  and  instead  of  their  good.  Accordingly,  he 
wills  that  humanity  shall  be  his  enemies.  He  is  in  a  double  state 
of  self-contradiction — first,  within  himself  he  contradicts  his  own 
universality  or  his  own  reason ;  secondly,  he  contradicts  his  spe- 
cies as  living  in  the  world.  This  contradiction  exists  for  him  in 
the  shape  of  pain  and  unhappiness — hellish  torment.  But  this  very 
torment  is  an  evidence  of  grace.  Were  he  unconscious  of  his  con- 
tradiction, he  were  free  from  torment.  But  such  freedom  from 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  51 

torment  would  be  annihilation  of  his  personality,  for  personality 
— let  us  define  it — is  individuality  which  feels  its  own  individu- 
ality and  at  the  same  time  its  participation  with  all  other  indi- 
viduals. All  manner  of  appetite  and  desire  even  is  the  feeling  of 
one*' s  identity  with  some  external  or  foreign  being.  Within  the 
depths  of  one's  self  he  feels  that  other.  So  pain  is  the  feeling  of 
the  identity  of  the  self  with  what  is  not  one's  particular  self.  It 
is  the  feeling  of  identity  of  the  little  self  which  we  have  really 
become,  with  that  larger  self  which  we  are  potentially  but  have 
not  as  yet  become.  Hence  pain — spiritual  pain — is  evidence  ot 
capacity  for  growth  that  is  not  exercised. 

Here  we  may  see  the  difference  between  the  state  of  Hell  and 
the  state  of  Purgatory.  The  sinner  is  in  Hell  when  he  looks 
upon  his  own  pain,  not  as  produced  by  his  own  freedom,  but  as 
thrust  upon  him  undeservedly  from  without.  His  case  is  hope- 
less, because  he  must  continually  get  more  bitter  by  the  contem- 
plation of  his  own  pain  and  its  undeservedness.  Could  he  by  any 
means  get  an  insight  into  the  world-order  and  see  it  truly,  he 
would  see  that  his  pain  all  comes  from  his  own  act  of  freedom 
— from  his  opposition  to  the  social  whole ;  then  he  would  welcome 


52  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

his  pain  as  the  evidence  of  his  own  substantial  participation  in 
his  race  and  in  the  Divine  Being.  Then  at  once  he  would  be 
in  Purgatory.  All  his  pain  then  would  become  purifying  instead 
of  hardening  to  his  soul.  He  would  have  arrived  at  the  good  of 
the  intellect  or  the  perception  of  the  divine  human  nature  of 
God.  In  Hell  the  individual  looks  upon  himself  as  the  absolute 
centre  and  measure  of  all  things.  In  Purgatory  the  individual 
looks  upon  society  as  the  centre  and  measure,  and  strives  to  rid 
himself  of  his  selfishness.  He  strives  to  ascend  from  his  little 
self  to  his  greater  self.  He  struggles  against  the  lusts  of  the  flesh 
and  the  pride  and  envy  of  his  soul.  Such  lusts  and  passions  now 
seem  to  him  horrible  when  they  arise  within  him,  and  this  is  the 
torment  of  Purgatory. 

In  Purgatory  nothing  can  happen  to  the  individual  that  is 
amiss,  for  all  pain  and  inconvenience,  all  the  ills  of  the  flesh  and 
of  the  soul,  are  made  means  of  purification,  means  of  conquest 
over  selfishness. 

It  is  obvious  that  to  any  sinner  in  Hell  there  may  come  this  in- 
sight into  his  relation  to  his  own  misery,  especially  if  the  mission- 
ary spirit  in  true  St.  Francis  form  comes  to  him  and  demonstrates 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  53 

its  sincerity  by  its  efforts  to  relieve  him  of  his,  pain  by  sharing  it 
or  bearing  it  vicariously. 

The  eternal  occupation  of  the  spirits  of  the  just  made  perfect  is 
here  indicated.  They  must  sustain  themselves  in  their  perfection 
or  attain  higher  degrees  of  perfection  by  humbly  assisting  the 
souls  in  Hell  to  see  their  true  condition  and  thus  get  into  Purga- 
tory. 

The  characteristic  mood  of  those  in  Hell  is  described  by  Dante 
in  the  third  canto : 

"Here  sighs,  plaints,  and  deep  wailings  resounded  through  the 
starless  air ;  it  made  me  weep  at  first.  Strange  tongues,  horrible 
outcries,  words  of  pain,  tones  of  anger,  voices  deep  and  hoarse,  and 
sound  of  hands  among  them,  made  a  tumult,  which  turns  itself 
unceasing  in  that  air  forever  dyed,  as  sand  when  the  whirlwind 
breathes."— (J.  0.),  iii,  22-30. 

§  4.  The  Punishment  of  the  Pusillanimous, 

Within  the  gate  of  Hell  upon  a  dark  plain  he  sees  a  vast  crowd 
of  people  running  furiously  behind  a  whirling  flag  and  sorely 
goaded  by  wasps  and  hornets.  These  were  the  souls  of  those 


54  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

who  lacked  will-power  sufficient  to  decide  for  themselves.  They 
were  the  pusillanimous  who  would  not  undertake  anything  for 
themselves,  but  were  the  sport  of  circumstances,  external  events 
stinging  them  to  do  things  and  to  pursue  some  aimless  giddy  flag 
of  a  cause.  These  were  not  admitted  to  Hell  proper,  because  they 
had  not  developed  their  free-will  or  power  of  choice,  but  yielded 
to  fortune  or  fate. 

§  5.    Why  Infants  and  Heathen  Sages  are  in  the  Limbo. 

Across  the  river  Acheron  we  come  to — 

"...  the  first  circle  that  girds  the  abyss.  Here  there  was  no 
plaint  that  could  be  heard,  except  of  sighs,  which  caused  the 
eternal  air  to  tremble.  And  this  arose  from  the  sadness,  without 
torment,  of  the  crowds  that  were  many  and  great,  both  of  children 
and  of  women  and  men." — (J.  C.),  iv,  24-30. 

These  had  not  sinned,  but  only  failed  to  enter  the  Christian 
faith  through  the  portal  of  Baptism.  Many  persons,  indeed,  had 
been  taken  out  of  this  circle  and  carried  to  heaven  by  a  "  Crowned 
Mighty  One,"  and  we  see  therefore  the  limitation  implied  to  the 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  55 

words  over  the  gate :  "Leave  all  hope  ye  who  enter."  Here  are 
left,  however,  the  noble  heathen  souls  and  the  souls  of  unbaptized 
infants.  We  ask  ourselves,  "What  is  the  meaning  of  all  this? 
Dante  weighed  carefully  the  state  of  mind  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans  as  heathen.  With  all  their  enlightenment  they  had  yet 
failed  to  see  the  world  of  humanity  as  divine-human  and  with  a 
future  like  that  portrayed  in  the  "  Paradiso."  For  them  there  was 
no  "Paradiso"  yet  revealed,  and  hence  no  Purgatory  or  transition 
to  it. 

Dante  truly  paints  for  us  the  actual  world-view  as  it  stood  in 
the  Greek  mind.  It  was  neither  sad  nor  joyful.  "  We  came,"  he 
says, 

"  to  the  foot  of  a  Noble  Castle,  seven  times  circled  with  lofty 
Walls,  defended  round  by  a  fair  Rivulet.  This  we  passed  as 
solid  land.  Through  seven  gates  I  entered  with  those  sages.  We 
reached  a  meadow  of  fresh  verdure.  On  it  were  people  with  eyes 
slow  and  grave,  of  great  authority  in  their  appearance.  They 
spoke  seldom,  with  mild  voices.  We  retired  to  one  of  the  sides, 
into  a  place  open,  luminous,  and  high,  so  that  they  could  all  be 
seen.  There  direct,  upon  the  green  enamel,  were  shown  to  me 


56  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

the  great  spirits  whoni  I  glory  within  myself  in  having  seen." — 
(J.  C.),  iv,  106-120. 

Dante's  love  of  the  symbolic  thus  leads  to  this  allegoric  descrip- 
tion of  his  university  life  (at  Bologna  ?),  when  he  came  to  the  study 
of  literature,  and  passed  over  its  fair  rivulet  of  speech  and  entered 
through  the  seven  gates  of  the  trivium  (grammar,  rhetoric,  and  dia- 
lectic) and  quadrimum  (astronomy,  music,  arithmetic,  and  geome- 
try) through  the  lofty  walls.of  learning.  These  heathen  were  not 
sinful,  not  to  blame  for  their  lack  of  insight  into  the  Christian  view 
of  the  world.  Indeed,  many  of  them,  like  Plato  and  Aristotle, 
had  worked  nobly  to  make  the  Christian  view  possible,  as  Scholas- 
ticism, even  in  Dante's  writings,  plainly  manifests.  But  the  fact 
remains  that  they  had  not  fully  attained  its  point  of  vision.  Their 
state  of  mind  only  is  indicated  here,  and  not  their  eternal  condi- 
tion, unless  Christianity  rejects  its  doctrine  of  human  freedom. 
This,  too,  is  the  state  of  mind  of  the  "  unbaptized  "  children.  All 
children,  whether  baptized  or  unbaptized,  are  heathens  up  to  the 
time  when  they  can  appreciate  the  world-view  of  Christianity  in 
some  shape — until  they  can  see  nature  and  human  history  as  a 
revelation  of  Divine  Reason. 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  57 

§  6.  The  Punishments  of  the  Incontinent. 

Within  the  real  hell  of  rebellious  spirits,  beyond  the  court  of  Mi- 
nos, we  enter  first  upon  the  circles — the  second  to  the  fifth  circles — 
in  which  sins  of  incontinence  are  punished — "  those  who  subjugate 
reason  to  appetite,"  as  Dante  tells  us.  In  the  second  circle,  which 
is  the  first  of  the  "  Inferno  "  proper,  the  lustful  are  driven  through 
the  darkened  air,  a  long  streak  of  them,  borne  on  the  blast  like  a 
flock  of  cranes.  Their  passions  darken  the  intellectual  vision  and 
drive  them  about  "  hither,  thither,  up,  down " — tossed  on  that 
strife  of  windy  gusts  of  passion.  The  punishment  is  a  realistic 
symbol  of  the  soul  filled  with  lust.  It  cannot  see  truth  nor  do 
works  of  righteousness,  for  its  sky  is  dark  with  clouds  and  tem- 
pests. The  gluttonous  are  in 

"  the  third  circle — that  of  the  eternal,  accursed,  cold  and 
heavy  rain.  Its  course  and  quality  is  never  new ;  large  hail, 
and  turbid  water,  and  snow — it  pours  down  through  the  dark- 
some air.  The  ground  on  which  it  falls  emits  a  putrid  smell. 
Cerberus,  a  monster  fierce  and  strange,  with  three  throats,  barks 
dog-like  over  those  that  are  immersed  in  it.  His  eyes  are  red, 


58  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

his  beard  gory  and  black,  his  belly  wide,  and  clawed  his  hands. 
He  clutches  the  spirits,  flays,  and  piecemeal  rends  them.  The 
rain  makes  them  howl  like  dogs.  With  one  side  they  screen 
the  other ;  they  often  turn  themselves,  the  impious  wretches." — 
(J.  C.),  vi,  7-21. 

This  description  of  the  actual  state  of  the  intemperate  in  this 
life  enables  us  to  recognize  the  punishments  which  their  sin  brings 
on  them.  "We  see  the  diseases  of  the  flesh  personified  in  Cerberus 
— dyspepsia,  gout,  dropsy,  delirium  tremens,  and  what  not.  In- 
temperance is  utterly  hostile  to  the  good  of  the  intellect  or  to  any 
sort  of  good  whatever,  and  it  steeps  the  soul  in  its  turbid  waters 
and  drenches  it  with  its  chilly  snows  or  racks  it  with  fevers.  In 
the  fourth  circle  we  meet  the  avaricious : 

"  As  does  the  surge,  there  above  Charybdis,  that  breaks  itself 
against  the  surge  wherewith  it  meets,  so  have  the  people  here  to 
counter-dance.  Here  saw  I,  too,  many  more  than  elsewhere,  both 
on  the  one  side  and  on  the  other,  with  loud  bowlings,  rolling 
weights  by  force  of  chest.  They  smote  against  each  other,  and 
then  all  turned  upon  the  spot,  rolling  them  back,  shouting, '  Why 
boldest  thou?'  and  'Why  throwest  thou  away?'  Thus  they 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  59 

returned  through  the  hideous  circle,  on  either  hand,  to  the  oppo- 
site point,  shouting  always  in  their  reproachful  measure.  Then 
every  one,  when  he  had  reached  it,  turned  through  his  semicircle 
toward  the  other  joust."— (J.  C.),  vii,  22-35. 

The  avaricious  and  prodigal  are  devoted  entirely  to  the  unspir- 
itual  occupation  of  heaping  up  pelf — they  roll  the  weights  by  force 
of  chest  first  one  way  and  then  another.  Think  of  the  human 
labor  given  to  property  as  an  end  merely  and  not  as  a  means ! 
The  struggle  to  gain  property  and  save  it — the  absorption  of  time 
and  attention  required — suggested  to  Dante  the  exertion  required 
to  roll  heavy  weights.  The  wealthy  must  needs  exert  constant 
pressure  to  hold  together  their  property ;  upon  the  slightest  relaxa- 
tion, the  forces  that  act  continually  for  the  dissipation  of  wealth 
will  gain  the  ascendancy  and  all  will  go  speedily.  The  avaricious 
are  engaged  in  resisting  those  who  wish  to  have  their  property  to 
spend  for  the  gratification  of  want.  Property  can  be  gained  and 
saved  only  by  continual  sacrifice  of  the  appetite  for  creature  com- 
fort both  in  one's  self  and  in  others.  But  the  longing  for  property 
in  order  to  gratify  desires  has  the  same  limiting  effect  on  the  soul 
as  the  struggle  to  save  wealth  for  its  own  sake.  In  both  cases  it 


60  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

subordinates  spiritual  interests  to  the  service  of  material  things. 
"  Cosi  convien  che  qui  la  gente  riddi."  It  is  the  struggle  of  the 
hoarding  propensity  with  the  propensity  to  outlay  for  the  gratifica- 
tion of  present  appetites  which  produces  the  vortex  in  which  the 
avaricious  and  prodigal  are  punished.  Ill-giving  and  ill-keeping 
(mal  dare,  e  mal  tener)  has  deprived  them  of  the  fair  world — the 
Paradiso.  Dante  knows  well  the  uses  of  property,  as  we  shall  see 
by  the  numerous  punishments  in  the  "  Inferno  "  that  relate  to  its 
abuse.  Property  or  private  ownership  is  one  of  the  two  instru- 
mentalities of  free  will  by  which  man  achieves  his  freedom.  In 
the  circle  of  the  violent,  therefore,  we  see  squanderers,  robbers,  and 
speculators  punished ;  in  the  circles  of  fraud  are  punished  simony, 
bribery,  theft,  and  counterfeiters.  There  are  seven  punishments 
in  all  devoted  to  sinners  against  the  sacredness  of  property  rights 
and  uses. 

§  7.  The  Relation  of  Sloth  to  Anger  among  the  Mortal  Sins. 

In  the  fifth  circle  we  come  upon  the  river  Styx  and  encounter 
the  souls  of  the  wrathful  and  melancholy. 

"  We  crossed  the  circle  to  the  other  bank,  near  a  spring,  that 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia."  61 

boils  and  pours  down  through  a  cleft  which  it  has  formed.  The 
water  was  darker  far  than  perse.  And  we,  accompanying  the 
dusky  waves,  entered  down  by  a  strange  path.  This  dreary 
streamlet  makes  a  marsh  that  is  named  Styx  when  it  has  de- 
scended to  the  foot  of  the  gray  malignant  shores.  And  I,  who 
stood  intent  on  looking,  saw  muddy  people  in  that  bog,  all  naked 
and  with  a  look  of  anger.  They  were  smiting  each  other,  not 
with  hands  only,  but  with  head  and  with  chest  and  with  feet, 
maiming  one  another  with  their  teeth,  piece  by  piece.  .  .  .  There 
are  people  underneath  the  water,  who  sob  and  make  it  bubble  at 
the  surface,  as  thy  eye  may  tell  thee,  whichever  way  it  turns. 
Fixed  in  the  slime,  they  say  :  Sullen  were  we  in  the  sweet  air, 
that  is  gladdened  by  the  Sun,  carrying  lazy  smoke  within  our 
hearts ;  now  lie  we  sullen  here  in  the  black  mire.  This  hymn  they 
gurgle  in  their  throats,  for  they  cannot  speak  it  in  full  words." — 
(J.  0.),  vii,  100-126. 

The  seven  mortal  sins  should  be  lust,  gluttony,  avarice,  sloth, 
anger,  envy,  and  pride.  In  the  "  Purgatorio  "  (where  each  mortal 
sin  appears  as  an  inner  tendency  or  incitement,  but  is  not  allowed 
to  come  to  external  acts  or  deeds)  these  seven  sins  are  expressly 


62  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

enumerated  and  assigned  each  to  its  separate  circle.  But  sloth  is 
not  assigned  to  a  separate  round  of  the  "  Inferno,"  nor  indeed  is 
envy  or  pride.  These  are  punished  in  what  the  Scholastic  theo- 
logians call  the  daughters  of  these  mortal  sins — that  is  to  say,  in 
their  results. 

But  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  names  six  daughters  to  sloth  (accidia — 
dtcij&eui) — malice,  rancor,  pusillanimity,  despair,  torpor,  and  wan- 
dering thoughts.  Hence  slothfulness  is  punished  in  its  effects  in 
sullenness  and  rancor,  and  also  in  the  round  of  suicides  in  the 
circle  of  the  violent,  who  take  their  own  lives  through  despair. 
Moreover,  its  daughters  pusillanimity,  torpor,  and  scatter-brains 
are  not  admitted  into  Hell  proper,  but  are  pursuing  the  aimless, 
giddy  flag  around  the  shores  of  Acheron.  Anger  is  punished 
directly  in  itself,  in  so  far  as  it  is  a  wrathful  state  of  mind,  by  the 
muddy  state  of  the  soul  which  it  engenders  and  by  the  thick,  lazy 
smoke  it  causes  in  the  heart.  The  wrathful  is  thus  far  removed 
from  the  celestial  state  of  the  soul,  which  discerns  truth  and  wills 
the  good. 

The  daughters  of  anger  are  punished  in  the  rounds  of  violence  be- 
low— the  violent  against  God,  against  self,  against  one's  neighbor. 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia."  63 

The  spiritual  state  of  the  soul  under  the  influence  of  anger  is 
well  symbolized  by  immersion  in  the  muddy  pool,  sobbing  and 
bubbling ;  the  comparison  of  a  sullen  disposition  to  a  lazy  smoke 
(accidioso  fummo),  which  obscures  the  light  of  day  and  disin- 
clines to  all  acts  of  duty,  is  felicitous.  Anger  is  indeed  the  muddy 
state  of  the  soul.  No  insight  into  truth  or  into  reasonable  prac- 
tical works  can  exist  in  the  angry  soul. 

§  8.    What  form  of  Heresy  is  a  Daughter  of  Sloth  f 

To  our  surprise  we  come  here,  before  reaching  the  circle  of  vio- 
lence, upon  heretics  burned  in  tombs. 

"  As  at  Aries,  where  the  Rhone  stagnates,  as  at  Pola  near  the 
Quarnaro  Gulf,  which  shuts  up  Italy  and  bathes  its  confines,  the 
sepulchres  make  all  the  place  uneven  ;  so  did  they  here  on  every 
side,  only  the  manner  here  was  bitterer.  For  among  the  tombs 
were  scattered  flames,  whereby  they  were  made  all  over  so  glow- 
ing hot  that  iron  more  hot  no  craft  requires.  Their  covers  were 
all  raised  up,  and  out  of  them  proceeded  moans  so  grievous  that 
they  seemed  indeed  the  moans  of  spirits  sad  and  wounded.  .  .  . 


64  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

These  are  the  Arch-heretics  with  their  followers  of  every  sect ; 
and,  much  more  than  thou  thinkest,  the  tombs  are  laden.  Like 
with  like  is  buried  here ;  and  the  monuments  are  more  and  less 
hot."— (J.  C.),  ix,  112-131. 

u  In  this  part  are  entombed  with  Epicurus  all  his  followers,  who 
make  the  soul  die  with  the  body." — (J.  C.),  x,  13-15. 

Is  heresy  a  daughter  of  sloth  ?  It  is  supposed  to  be  a  daughter 
of  the  opposite  of  sloth — namely,  of  intellectual  violence — and  in 
that  case  it  belongs  to  the  progeny  of  anger.  But  it  is  not  heresy 
in  general  that  we  have  here  in  the  sepulchres,  but  the  heresy  of 
disbelief  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  Perhaps,  however,  this 
seemed  in  Dante's  eyes  the  effect  of  intellectual  sloth.  To  them 
who  believe  that  the  soul  dies  with  the  body  this  earth  is  only 
one  vast  tomb  in  which  they  are  slowly  consumed.  So  long 
as  they  live  they  sit  and  feel  themselves  wasting  in  tombs  with 
the  lids  raised.  At  death  the  lids  are  to  close  forever  upon  them. 
Dante  accurately  depicts  the  spiritual  state  of  the  &oul  in  this  life 
when  possessed  of  the  conviction  that  materialism  produces. 
He  supposes  this  to  be  the  doctrine  of  Epicurus — namely,  that 
we  die  with  the  body.  The  sin  itself  is  its  own  punishment. 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia."  65 

Moreover,  even  the  view  that  he  takes  of  the  world  is  to  the  ma- 
terialist his  hell. 

A  point  of  interest  is  found  in  the  discourse  of  Farinata  to 
the  effect  that  spirits  who  can  foretell  particulars  of  Dante's  exile 
yet  do  not  know  the  present.  Spirits,  on  separation  from  their 
bodies,  it  would  seem,  lose  the  instrument  by  which  they  read 
the  processes  going  on  upon  the  earth.  They  know  the  total  post 
sibility  of  all  things,  but  do  not  know  exactly  where  the  presen- 
has  brought  the  process  of  unfolding  it.  This  is  the  doctrine  of 
the  Scholastics  (and  of  Homer  as  well).  After  time — i.  e.,  after 
all  possibility  is  unfolded — the  portals  of  experience  are  closed 
(because  there  is  nothing  new  any  more  to  become  event). 

§  9.  The  Punishment  of  the  Violent. 

The  first  round  of  the  circle  of  violence  contained  murderers, 
tyrants,  and  robbers,  quite  as  we  should  expect  to  find  them,  im- 
mersed in  blood  up  to  their  eyebrows. 

Next,  the  gloomy  wood  of  self-murderers,  the  fruit  of  despera- 
tion chiefly  caused  by  careless  use  of  property.  The  suicides  are 
pursued  by  hell-hounds,  importunate  creditors,  no  doubt,  and  the 


66  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

cares  and  worries  that  attend  on  poverty.  With  striking  poetic 
justice  those  who  slay  themselves  are  placed,  not  in  animal  bod- 
ies, but  in  trees.  Their  punishment  is  to  need  their  bodies.  This 
also  hints  at  the  vegetative  state — a  sort  of  paralysis  of  will  and 
sensibilities,  of  feeling  and  locomotion — of  the  soul  which  has 
come  under  the  influence  of  settled  melancholy. 

In  the  third  round  of  violence  are  punished  the  violent  against 
God — the  blasphemers. 

"  Over  all  the  great  sand,  falling  slowly,  rained  dilated  flakes  oi 
tire,  like  those  of  snow  in  Alps  without  a  wind.  As  the  flames 
which  Alexander,  in  the  hot  regions  of  India,  saw  fall  upon  his 
host,  entire  to  the  ground — whereat  he  with  his  legions  took  care 
to  tramp  the  soil,  for  the  fire  was  more  easily  extinguished  while 
alone — so  fell  the  eternal  heat,  by  which  the  sand  was  kindled, 
like  tinder  beneath  the  flint  and  steel,  redoubling  the  pain.  Ever 
restless  was  the  dance  of  miserable  hands,  now  here,  now  there, 
shaking  off  the  (flakes)  fresh  burning." — (J.  C.),  xiv,  28-42. 

Fierce  arrogance,  like  that  of  Capaneus,  attacks  the  divine  me- 
diation in  the  world  in  so  far  as  it  appears  as  benign  influences, 
and  this  hostility  turns  such  influences  into  tormenting  flames. 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia."  67 

This  will  be  fully  evident  in  considering  the  sin  of  Pride  later  on. 
In  fact,  it  is  not  easy  to  distinguish  the  sin  of  Pride  from  this  of 
violence  against  God.  In  fact,  Dante  makes  Yirgil  speak  of  the 
pride  of  Capaneus  (la  tua  superbia,  xiv,  64)  as  that  which  chiefly 
punishes  him. 

The  souls  punished  in  the  outermost  verge  of  the  seventh  circle 
(xvii,  43-78)  are  the  violent  against  art ;  they  are  usurers  and  injuri- 
ous extortioners,  or,  perhaps,  better  designated  now  as  speculators 
in  the  necessaries  of  life — those  who  try  to  make  fortunes  by  cor- 
nering the  food  and  clothing  of  the  market,  and  not  capitalists 
who  put  their  money  to  good  uses.  These  usurers  are  not  to  be 
recognized  by  their  faces,  but  solely  by  their  money-bags  and  ar- 
morial bearings,  behind  which  they  are  hidden.  They  sit  crouched 
up  on  the  burning  sand  quite  subordinate  to  the  pelf  they  are  ac- 
cumulating. They  have  lost  human  semblance,  or  their  humanity 
has  shrunk  behind  their  nefarious  occupation. 

§  10.  The  Daughters  of  Envy :  Ten  Species  of  Fraud. 

The  daughters  of  Envy,  according  to  Dante,  are  ten  species  of 
fraud.  These  sins  are  punished  in  "  malebolge,"  or  evil  ditches. 


68  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

Horned  demons  scourge  the  seducers  and  panders.  The  natter- 
erg  wallow  in  filth.  They  are  engaged  in  destroying  the  rational 
self-estimate  of  those  that  they  natter  by  calling  good  evil  and  evil 
good,  and  producing  a  confusion  between  clean  and  unclean.  The 
Simonists  buy  and  sell  the  gifts  of  the  Church  for  money,  and  are 
plunged,  like  coin,  head  first  into  round  holes  or  purses,  while 
flames  scorch  the  soles  of  their  feet.  As  others  follow  them,  they 
sink  toward  the  bottom  of  the  earth,  gravitating  toward  pelf. 
Their  deeds  directly  destroy  the  spiritual  by  making  it  subservient 
to  money  and  material  gain ;  they  invert  the  true  order  of  the 
spiritual  and  material,  and  symbolically  place  the  head  where  the 
feet  should  be. 

In  the  fourth  ditch  come  the  diviners,  soothsayers,  astrologers, 
or  fortune-tellers,  who  make  a  trade  of  a  knowledge  of  the  future. 

"Through  the  circular  valley  I  saw  a  people  coming,  silent  and 
weeping,  at  the  pace  which  the  litanies  make  in  this  world.  When 
my  sight  descended  lower  on  them,  each  seemed  wondrously  dis- 
torted from  the  chin  to  the  commencement  of  the  chest,  so  that 
the  face  was  turned  toward  the  loins  ;  and  they  had  to  come  back- 
ward, for  to  look  before  them  was  denied.  Perhaps  by  force  of 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  69 

palsy  some  have  been  thus  quite  distorted  ;  but  I  have  not  seen, 
nor  do  I  believe  it  to  be  so." — (J.  C.),  xx,  7-18. 

Whether  the  knowledge  of  the  future  be  real  or  only  pretended, 
it  is  all  the  same,  for  the  effect  of  foretelling  what  will  happen  in 
the  future  is  to  utterly  paralyze  the  human  will.  What  is  fated 
to  happen  cannot  be  helped.  He  who  divines  his  own  future 
learns  to  depend  on  luck  and  chance  and  external  fortune  and 
not  on  his  own  reason  and  will.  Moreover,  the  one  who  knows 
the  future  knows  it  as  already  happened,  and  hence  turns  all 
events  into  something  that  has  already  happened — that  is  to 
say,  into  a  past.  For  him  there  is  no  present  or  future;  all  is 
past  time.  Hence  the  meaning  of  the  punishment  by  twisting 
the  head  around  so  as  to  look  backward.  They  look  at  all  as  past, 
instead  of  standing  like  rational  beings  between  the  past  and 
future  and,  on  the  basis  of  the  accomplished  facts  of  the  past, 
building  new  possibilities  into  facts  by  the  exercise  of  their  wills. 

In  the  fifth  ditch  are  punished  the  sinners  who  sell  public  offices 
for  money.  They  sell  justice,  too,  for  money,  thus  confusing  all 
moral  order.  They  are  plunged  in  boiling  pitch  and  tormented 
by  demons  with  long  forks.  Dante  is  actually  diverted  at  the 


TO  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

punishment  of  these  mischief-makers,  with  whom  he  has  become 
so  well  acquainted  through  the  politics  of  his  time. 

The  nature  of  bribes  and  bartery  is  likened  to  pitch,  because  it 
never  leaves  the  person  free.  A  bargain  is  never  closed,  but  gives 
occasion  for  an  indefinite  succession  of  demands  for  blackmail 
afterward — it  is  of  so  sticky  a  character. 

The  hypocrites  are  in  the  sixth  circle. 

"  The're  beneath  we  found  a  painted  people,  who  were  going 
around  with  steps  exceeding  slow,  weeping,  and  in  their  look  tired 
and  overcome.  They  had  cloaks  on,  with  deep  hoods  before  their 
eyes,  made  in  the  shape  that  they  make  for  the  monks  at  Cologne. 
Outward  they  are  gilded,  so  that  it  dazzles ;  but  within  all  lead, 
and  so  heavy,  that  Frederick's  compared  to  them  were  straw. 
Oh,  weary  mantle  for  eternity  ! " — (J.  C.),  xxiii,  58-6T. 

This  device  of  gilded  cloaks  of  lead  and  deep  hoods,  all  so  heavy 
that  they  who  wear  them  are  tired  and  overcome,  is  a  symbol 
ready  to  suggest  itself  to  a  poet.  These  hypocrites  assume  forms 
of  disguise — wear  assumed  characters — not  their  own  natural, 
spontaneous  characters,  but  they  impersonate  characters  that  they 
wish  to  seem.  This  requires  special  effort,  an  eternal  make-be- 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  71 

lieve,  continual  artificial  effort  to  do  what  ought  to  require  no 
effort.  They  are  punished  by  their  very  deeds  in  this  weary 
manner. 

The  seventh  ditch  is  full  of  thieves  turning  into  serpents.  Con- 
tinual metamorphoses  are  going  on — serpents  into  men  and  men 
into  serpents,  the  thief  nature  taking  possession  of  the  man  by  fits 
and  starts.  Thievery  destroys  property  and  the  thieves  have  their 
very  persons  stolen  from  them — even  their  bodies  and  personal 
features — and  are  obliged  to  assume  others.  We  have  here  a 
symbol  of  manifold  significance,  hinting  especially  at  the  disguise 
which  the  thief  assumes  in  order  to  perpetrate  his  crimes. 

Evil  counsellors  in  the  eighth  ditch  are  wrapt  in  tongues  of 
flame,  the  symbol  of  their  own  evil  tongues,  causing  flames  of  dis- 
cord in  the  world. 

In  the  ninth  ditch  are  the  schismatics,  those  who  have  divided 
religious  faith  !  being  cloven  asunder ;  those  who  have  produced 
schism  in  the  State  are  mutilated  about  the  head,  to  symbolize  the 
place  of  their  injury  to  society,  while  the  one  who  foments  schism 
in  the  family  carries  his  severed  head  in  his  hand — he  has  severed 
the  head  of  the  family  from  its  limbs. 


72  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

In  the  tenth  ditch  or  chasm  we  have  the  falsifiers  in  four  classes  : 
The  alchemists  who  make  base  metals  resemble  gold  are  punished 
by  cutaneous  diseases,  symbolic  of  the  superficial  effects  of  their 
alchemy  on  the  base  metals.  The  simulators  of  persons  are  man- 
gled by  each  other,  so  as  to  symbolize  the  violence  done  to  person- 
ality by  counterfeiting  it.  Those  who  have  coriterfeited  the  coin, 
swelling  it  up  to  due  weight  by  alloy,  are  themselves  swollen 
with  dropsy,  their  blood  alloyed  with  water.  The  liars  and  false 
witnesses  reek  with  fever  that  produces  delirium  or  double  con- 
sciousness, for  "  the  liar  must  have  a  good  memory."  He  must 
carry  a  double  consciousness — one,  a  current  of  thoughts  corre- 
sponding to  events  as  they  are,  and  the  other  current  feigning 
another  order  of  events  consistent  with  the  lies  he  has  told,  thus 
creating  within  himself  a  sort  of  delirium. 


1  Mahomet  is  regarded  by  Dante  as  a  perverter  of  Christian  doctrine  and  not  as  a  re- 
former of  the  religion  of  his  countrymen.  It  is  interesting  in  this  connection  to  read 
Sprenger's  great  work  ("  Das  Leben  und  die  Lehre  des  Mohammad,"  Berlin,  2d  ed.,  1869 
— see  vol.  i,  70-90),  wherein  it  is  shown  how  Mahomet  derived  his  first  impulse  of 
his  career  from  Ebionitic  Christians,  who  preached  in  Arabia  substantially  the  doctrine 
of  Islam. 


Daniels  "Divina  Commedia"  73 

§  11.  The  Circles  of  Treachery,  the  Daughter  of  Pride. 

Envy  is  distinguished  from  Pride  by  the  philosophers  in  a  manner 
somewhat  different  from  Dante's  poetic  treatment.  Even  Dante 
himself,  defining  as  a  philosopher,  does  not  quite  agree  with  him- 
self as  poet.  One  would  say  that  Dante  as  poet  conceives  pride 
to  indicate  absolute  selfishness,  or  rather  concentration  on  self. 
Pride  says,  in  fact,  to  the  universe :  "I  do  not  want  you  or  any 
of  your  good  ;  I  want  no  participation  with  you  ! "  While  envy 
wants  the  good  of  others,  but  wishes  evil  to  be  given  to  them  in  its 
stead.  Thus,  envy  has  some  sociality  about  it,  though  of  a  nega- 
tive sort.  It  is  still  interested  enough  in  its  fellows  to  wish  them 
evil  and  to  covet  their  good.  As  ordinarily  defined,  it  would  be 
easy  to  classify  most  of  the  instances  of  pride  under  envy. 

Just  as  in  the  case  of  sloth,  anger,  and  envy,  so  here  pride  is 
represented  by  its  daughters,  which  are  four  species  of  treachery 
—treachery  toward  one's  blood  relatives  in  the  family,  treachery 
toward  one's  native  country,  treachery  toward  one's  friends,  and 
treachery  toward  one's  masters  or  benefactors.  Caina,  named 
from  Cain,  holds  the  first ;  the  Antenora  (from  An  ten  or,  who  be- 


74  .     The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

trayed  Troy  to  the  Greeks)  holds  the  second  class ;  the  Ptolemaea, 
named  from  the  captain  of  Jericho,  who  betrayed  Simon,  the 
high-priest,  holds  the  third  class,  while  the  Judecca,  named  from 
Judas,  holds  the  fourth  class — Judas,  Cassius,  and  Brutus  being 
crunched  in  the  three  mouths  of  the  monster  traitor,  Lucifer. 

The  entire  circle  of  treachery  is  covered  with  ice,  to  symbolize 
the  isolating  and  freezing  character  of  the  crime  of  treachery,  the 
daughter  of  Pride.  This  sin  alone  completely  isolates  each  man 
from  every  other.  All  the  others  attack  the  social  bond,  but  are 
inconsistent,  because  they  seek  the  fruits  of  society,  though  aim- 
ing a  blow  at  its  existence.  Pride  is  consistent  selfishness,  because 
it  makes  itself  sole  end  and  sole  means.  It  is  frozen  and  it  freezes 
all  others. 

The  next  branch  of  our  subject  is  the  new  view  of  these  mortal 
sins  from  the  inner  or  subjective  standpoint.  After  repentance 
begins  there  is  no  more  sin  uttered  in  deeds,  but  there  yet  remains 
the  pain  that  comes  from  the  repressed  proclivity  within.  Hence 
a  series  of  torments  belong  to  the  Purgatory,  but  essentially  dif- 
ferent from  those  of  the  Inferno. 


Dante's  "Divina  C&mmedia"  75 


II.  THE  PURGATORY. 
§  12.  The  Spiritual  Sense  of  Purgatory. 

The  chief  thought  that  has  guided  us  in  our  interpretation  of 
the  "  Inferno  "  is  this : 

Dante  describes  each  punishment  in  such  a  manner  that  we  are 
to  see  the  essential  condition  produced  in  the  soul  by  the  sin..  The 
sin  itself  is  beheld  as  punishment,  for  each  sin  cuts  off  in  some 
peculiar  manner  the  individual  from  participation  in  the  good  that 
flows  from  society.  In  the  social  whole  all  help  each  and  each 
helps  all.  Each  one  gives  his  mite  to  the  treasury  of  the  world^ 
and  in  return  receives  the  gift  of  the  whole — he  gives  a  finite  and 
receives  an  infinite.  Now,  each  one  of  the  seven  mortal  sins  ob- 
structs in  some  way  this  participation. 

Let  .us  only  look  upon  the  mortal  sin  with  wise  illumined 
eyes — with  a  spiritual  sense,  as  it  were — and  we  see  that  the 
sin  makes  an  atmosphere  of  torment  and  embarrassment  within 


76  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

the  soul,  and  an  environment  of  hatred  between  the  soul  and 
society. 

Dante,  therefore,  has  only  to  look  into  the  state  of  the  soul  un- 
der sin  and  describe  by  poetic  symbols  its  condition.  It  is  not  the 
remote  effects  of  the  seven  mortal  sins,  but  their  direct  immediate 
presence  that  furnishes  the  punishments  of  the  Inferno.  The 
effects  of  sinful  deeds  return  to  the  doer,  and  pain  comes  from 
this,  too.  But  Dante  has  elaborated  in  symbolic  description  the 
internal  state  which  constitutes  the  sin  as  being  the  state  of  tor- 
ment. There  are  two  attitudes  of  the  soul,  however,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  sinful  thoughts,  and  we  have  arrived  at  the  second — at 
Purgatory. 

We  must  read  the  "  Divina  Commedia"  with  this  thought  in 
mind  :  Punishment  is  not  an  extraneous  affair  that  may  be  inflict- 
ed after  sin,  and  on  account  of  it.  Such  external  infliction  is  not 
divine  punishment.  That  is  of  a  different  sort;  the  punishment 
is  the  sin  itself. 

§  13.  The  Entrance  to  Purgatory. 

On  emerging  from  the  dark  and  gloomy  depths  of  the  Inferno? 
Dante  and  his  guide  again  behold  the  stars. 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia."  77 

"  Of  oriental  sapphire  that  sweet  blue 

Which  overspread  the  beautiful  serene 
Of  the  pure  ether,  far  as  eye  could  view 

To  heaven's  first  circle,  brightened  up  my  mien, 
Soon  as  I  left  that  atmosphere  of  death 

Which  had  my  heart  so  saddened  with  mine  eyes : 
The  beauteous  planet  which  gives  love  new  breath 

With  laughing  light  cheered  all  the  orient  skies, 
Dimming  the  Fishes  that  her  escort  made : 

Then,  turning  to  my  right,  I  stood  to  scan 
The  southern  pole,  and  four  stars  there  surveyed — 

Save  the  first  people,  never  seen  by  man. 
Heaven  seemed  rejoicing  in  their  blazing  rays." 

— (T.  W.  Parsons'  Transl.),  i,  15-25. 

The  two  poets  have  now  come  to  a  realm  of  hope  and  growth 
and  morning-redness,  on  the  dawn  of  Easter-day — a  festival  sym- 
bolic of  the  rise  of  the  soul  out  of  the  Hell  of  sensuality.  They 
meet  Cato,  the  guardian  of  the  place,  his  face  illuminated  by  the 
holy  lights  of  the  four  bright  stars  of  the  southern  cross.  These 
symbols  of  the  four  cardinal  virtues — temperance,  justice,  pru- 


78  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

dence,  and  fortitude — flamed  thus  in  the  morning  sky  of  the  south- 
ern heavens,  while  the  three  great  stars  symbolizing  the  three 
celestial  virtues — faith,  hope,  and  charity — will  be  seen  later,  in 
the  evening  sky,  as  mentioned  in  the  eighth  canto.  Directed  by 
Cato,  they  proceed  toward  the  shore  of  the  sea,  and  after  Virgil 
has  washed  the  tear-stained  cheeks  of  Daute  with  the  purgatorial 
dews,  he  girds  him  with  a  smooth  rush,  the  symbol  of  humility 
under  chastisement.  Dante  had  thrown  his  girdle  of  self-right- 
eousness 1  into  the  pit  of  fraud  on  his  descent.  An  angel  appears, 

1  Carlyle  suggests  this  meaning  for  the  girdle  which  was  thrown  to  the  monster  Ge- 
ryon.     He  had  once  thought  to  catch  the  leopard  with  the  painted  skin  by  its  aid — 
%<  E  con  essa  pensai  alcuna  volta 

Prender  la  lonza  alia  pelle  dipinta." 

It  must  be  noted  that  there  is  a  vast  abyss  separating  the  upper  hell  of  incontinence 
from  the  lower  hell  of  fraud  and  treachery — the  hell  of  natural  impulse  and  desire  from 
the  hell  of  considerate,  calculating  selfishness,  which  is  conscious  of  the  spiritual  bond 
of  society,  and  deliberately  sacrifices  it  for  selfish  ends.  It  is  the  difference  between 
the  special  or  particular  and  the  universal.  Incontinence  seeks  the  particular  object  of 
gratification,  and  simply  neglects  the  social  bond  that  would  forbid  it.  But  Envy,  with 
its  daughters,  the  ten  species  of  fraud,  does  not  attack  the  individual  directly,  but 
through  and  by  means  of  the  social  bond  itself.  It  uses  the  social  bond  as  though  it 
were  not  a  means  of  existence  for  the  social  whole,  but  as  though  it  were  a  means  for 
the  individual  to  use  in  seeking  his  private  and  exclusive  «nds.  So,  too,  Pride,  with 
treachery,  its  daughter,  attacks  the  four  forms  of  the  social  bond,  directly  seeking  to 


Dantds  " Dimna  Commedia"  79 

piloting  swiftly  over  the  waves  a  bark  laden  with  spirits  chanting 
the  psalm  of  deliverance,  "  When  Israel  went  out  of  Egypt,  the 


put  the  individual  in  place  of  the  social  whole,  and  to  set  aside  the  social  bond  entirely. 
Now,  the  principle  of  this  nether  hell  is  not  an  animal  or  natural  one,  a  yielding  to  na- 
tive impulse,  but  a  peculiarly  human  hell  (xi,  25,  "  Ma  perch£  frode  e  dell'  uom  proprio 
male  "),  a  hell  made  by  using  the  social  bond  against  itself  (fraud)  or  by  seeking  to  de- 
stroy it  utterly  (treachery).  The  girdle  (of  self-righteousness,  as  Carlyle  interprets  it, 
following  the  hints  of  older  commentators)  might  then  be  taken  to  signify  the  principle 
of  Dante's  actions — the  aim  of  life  which  united  or  girded  up  his  endeavors  while  a 
young  man  looking  to  wealth  and  luxury — creature  comforts — individual  happiness,  in 
short.  It  was  the  principle  of  thrift  that  considers  the  pleasures  which  the  sins  of  in- 
continence seek,  to  be  legitimate  ends  for  the  pursuit  of  the  soul.  The  love  of  sex,  of 
food  and  drink,  of  money,  of  pure  individual  will  (anger  is  based  on  this),  is  the  object 
for  which  the  girdle  of  thrift  unites  one's  endeavors — it  is  a  selfish  aim,  and  while  it 
may  be  ever  so  legitimate  in  its  use  of  means  for  gratification,  yet  it  is,  after  all,  akin  to 
envy,  and  this  mortal  sin  is  attracted  to  it  and  hopes  to  prevail  upon  it.  The  girdle  of 
legitimate  self-seeking,  therefore,  attracts  Geryon,  the  monster  of  hypocrisy  and  kindred 
vices.  Dante  has  recently  seen  the  nature  of  these  objects  of  gratification,  and  is  ready 
to  yield  up  to  Virgil  this  girdle.  Scartazzini,  in  his  commentary  (Nota  A,  Inf.,  xvi, 
106),  holds  that  the  cord  is  not  a  mere  symbol,  but  also  a  real  cord — the  cord  of  the 
Franciscan  order,  with  which  Dante  had  once  (according  to  old  tradition)  girded  himself 
in  the  habit  of  a  novice,  thinking  to  tame  the  appetites  of  the  flesh  (prender  la  lonza). 
"  The  cord  has  become  superfluous  since  Dante  has  left  behind  the  circles  wherein  lux- 
ury is  punished."  This  cord  is  used  merely  to  excite  the  attention  of  Geryon  ;  or  does  it 
suggest  to  Geryon  the  approach  of  an  apostate  from  the  Franciscan  order — one  who  has 
discarded  his  girdle  of  renunciation,  a  hypocritical  Franciscan,  secretly  unfaithful  to  the 
rules  of  his  order  (as  suggested  by  Philalethes  in  his  commentary)  ?  This  is  certainly 


80  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

house  of  Jacob  from  a  people  of  strange  language,"  celebrating 
their  escape  from  the  bondage  of  sin. 

The  first  terrace  of  the  steep  mountain  of  Purgatory  is  devoted 
to  the  souls  who  procrastinated  their  repentance.  Manfred  tells 
them  that  one  who  dies  in  contumacy  of  the  holy  church  must 
staj"  on  the  plain  that  surrounds  the  ascent  for  a  period  thirty 
times  as  long  as  the  period  of  his  presumption.  And  Belaqna, 
who  has  attained  the  first  terrace,  is  obliged  to  wait,  as  we  learn, 
on  the  first  terrace  a  duration  equivalent  to  the  time  he  lost  in  his 
earthly  life  by  procrastination.  But  it  seems  that  the  time  of 
delay  may  be  shortened  by  the  prayers  of  pious  people  still  on  the 
earth. 

Here  we  note  a  striking  contrast  between  the  souls  that  desire 
purification  and  those  who  peopled  the  rounds  of  the  Inferno.  The 


better  than  the  interpretation  of  those  who  take  the  girdle  as  a  symbol  of  fraud,  or  of 
some  virtue  opposed  to  fraud,  unless  the  leopard  signifies  Florence,  and  its  spots  denote 
the  white  and  black  parties,  in  which  case  the  girdle  may  mean  fraud  in  the  sense  of 
stratagem,  or  virtue  in  the  sense  of  justice,  or  vigilance,  or  impartiality,  as  suggested  by 
commentators.  But  the  leopard  doubtless  suggests  Florence  and  quiet  citizen  life,  and 
also  sensuous  pleasure  or  luxury,  and  perhaps  the  factions  of  Florence  also.  Gayety 
and  liveliness  are  emphasized  in  the  beast.  It  is  a  complex  symbol. 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia."  81 

spirit  of  those  in  Hell  is  that  of  bitterness  against  others.  They 
do  not  look  for  help  from  co-operation.  Having  attacked  society 
by  mortal  sin,  they  find  their  deeds  returned  or  reflected  back 
upon  them  as  pain  and  limitation.  They  curse  their  fellow-men 
and  do  -not  wish  co-operation.  But  if  it  has  attained  the  "good 
of  the  intellect,"  which  is  the  recognition  of  the  principle  of  grace 
(or  beneficence)  as  the  supreme  principle  of  the  universe,  and  its 
corollary  of  human  freedom  and  responsibility,  the  soul  is  in  Pur- 
gatory. It  now  sees  all  pain  and  inconvenience  to  be  angels  in 
disguise — to  be,  in  fact,  the  necessary  means  of  purification  and 
progress.  This  mountain  of  purification  is  indeed  the  steepest  as- 
cent in  the  world,  but,  as  Yirgil  assures  Dante,  "  the  more  one  - 
mounts,  the  less  it  pains  him,"  and  "  when  it  becomes  as  pleasant 
and  easy  to  climb  as  it  is  to  float  down  stream  in  a  boat,"  then 
one  has  surely  arrived  at  the  end  of  his  journey.  He  has  rooted 
out  not  only  the  habits  of  sinning,  but  also  all  the  proclivities  and 
tendencies  to  it,  and  there  is  no  longer  any  danger  of  temptation 
because  the  full  light  of  the  intellect  enables  him  to  see  the  true 
nature  of  all  deeds,  and  he  loves  the  good  and  hates  the  evil  quite 
spontaneously. 


82  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

The  divine  charity  that  prays  for  others  and  seeks  their  eternal 
good  with  missionary  zeal  avails  to  help  them  up  the  mountain  of 
purification.  As  the  souls  who  are  detained  on  the  first  circle  on 
account  of  their  procrastination  long  for  the  time  when  they  may 
enter  upon  their  purgation,  they  chant  the  "  Miserere,"  the  Fifty- 
first  Psalm,  full  of  longing  for  purification  :  "  Wash  me  thorough- 
ly from  mine  iniquity,  and  cleanse  me  from  my  sin.  For  I 
acknowledge  my  transgressions." 

§  14.  Church  and  State. 

Dante's  poem  differs  from  all  other  works  of  art  in  the  fact 
that  he  does  not  limit  himself  to  the  development  of  a  single 
event  or  a  single  collision  of  an  individual,  but  shows  us  in  a 
threefold  series  more  than  half  a  thousand  tragic  and  epic  charac- 
ters, so  foreshortened  in  the  perspective  of  the  divine  purpose  of 
his  poem  as  to  be  seen  each  at  one  glance  of  the  eye  as  we  pass  on 
our  way.  His  supreme  artistic  power  in  this  respect  appears  in 
his  ability  to  trace  all  the  essential  outlines  of  a  character  in  the 
fewest  strokes.  Examples  of  this  abound  throughout  the  poem. 
The  picture  of  Bordello,  as  they  met  him  on  the  first  terrace,  on 


Daniels  "Divina  Commedia"  83 

the  evening  of  the  first  day,  is  noteworthy,  especially  because  of 
the  fact  that  it  betrays  the  pride  of  Dante's  character  in  his  loving 
description  of  the  pride  of  another  : 

"  But  yonder,  look  !  one  spirit,  all  alone, 

By  itself  stationed,  bends  toward  us  his  gaze : 
The  readiest  passage  will  by  him  be  shown. 

We  came  up  toward  it :  0  proud  Lombard  soul ! 
How  thou  didst  wait,  in  thy  disdain  unstirred, 
And  thy  majestic  eyes  didst  slowly  roll ! 

Meanwhile  to  us  it  never  uttered  word, 

But  let  us  move,  just  giving  us  a  glance, 
Like  as  a  lion  looks  in  his  repose." 

— (T.  W.  P.,  Tr.),  vi,  58-66. 

The  apostrophe  to  Italy  that  follows  describes  the  civil  factions 
and  is  one  of  many  in  which  Dante  proclaims  his  doctrine  of  the 
necessity  of  separation  of  Church  and  State,  or  say,  rather,  the  co- 
ordination and  independence  of  the  two  institutions.  Human  de- 
fect as  sin  must  be  adjudged  and  recompensed  differently  from 
human  defect  as  crime.  Sin  is  rebellion  against  the  divine  world- 


84:  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

order,  and  cannot  be  atoned  for  by  a  finite  measure  of  punish- 
ment, but  may  be  escaped  only  by  complete  repentance,  complete 
internal  change.  Sin  is  essentially  internal,  while  crime  consists 
essentially,  in  the  overt  act.  Crime  must  be  measured  and  pun- 
ished— measured  by  itself,  and  the  deed  or  its  symbolic  equivalent 
returned  upon  the  criminal.  For  one  tribunal  to  take  cognizance 
of  both  phases  of  defect  is  to  confuse  the  standards  of  religion  and 
civil  justice.  To  treat  sin  as  crime,  and  teach  that  it  may  be 
measured  and  condoned  by  some  external  fine  or  penance,  destroys 
the  religious  consciousness.  To  treat  crime  as  sin  makes  every 
slightest  dereliction  incur  the  last  penalty  of  the  law,  and  estab- 
lishes the  code  of  Draco.  For  the  sinner  is  a  rebel  or  traitor 
against  God.  He  attacks  his  own  essence,  and  if  permitted  to 
carry  out  his  will  would  actually  destroy  his  individual  being.  To 
return  his  act  upon  him  is  to  inflict  infinite  punishment  on  him. 
Hence  justice — i.  e.,  a  formal  return  of  the  deed — cannot  save  the 
winner.  But  there  is  grace,  which  forgives  the  sin  upon  genuine 
repentance.  The  Church  must  look  to  the  state  of  the  heart — that 
is  to  say,  to  the  disposition  of  the  man.  The  civil  power  must 
look  to  the  deed.  If  the  Church  administers  the  State,  it  looks 


Dantds  "Divina  Commedia"  85 

too  much  toward  the  disposition,  and  makes  too  small  account  of 
the  overt  act.  In  correcting  its  procedure  and  in  adapting  itself 
to  the  needs  of  civil  justice,  it  soon  comes  to  neglect  its  divine 
functions,  and  reduce  religion  to  an  external  ceremonial  by  de- 
grading the  idea  of  sin  to  the  idea  of  crime,  or  external  act.  These 
thoughts  weighed  much  upon  the  mind  of  Dante,  and  he  often 
recurs  to  this  theme. 

The  vale  of  the  princes  to  which  the  three  poets  come  on  the 
close  of  the  first  day  is  in  many  respects  the  most  charming  scene 
in  the  "Divina  Commedia,"  although  its  intent  appears  to  be  the 
reproof  of  secular  potentates  for  their  hesitation,  their  procrastina- 
tion, in  asserting  their  divine  co-ordination  with  the  spiritual  po- 
tentate, and  thus  bringing  to  an  end  the  distraction  of  Italy.  This 
suggestion  also  occurs  in  the  psalm,  "  Salve  Kegina,"  which  the 
princes  intone  as  they  sit  on  the  green  turf  amid  flowers.  It  calls 
upon  the  Mother  of  Pity  to  save  us  poor  exiles  dwelling  in  this 
vale  of  tears — exiles  also  from  our  rightful  thrones. 

Moreover,  the  poem  hints  at  the  pathos,  for  Dante,  himself  an 
exile,  on  account  of  this  procrastination  of  the  princes  to  assume 
rightful  authority  and  bring  peace  to  the  Italian  cities. 


86  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

"  'Twixt  steep  and  3evel  went  a  winding  path 

Which  led  us  where  the  vale-side  dies  away 
Till  less  than  half  its  height  the  margin  hath. 

Gold  and  fine  silver,  ceruse,  cochineal, 

India's  rich  wood,  heaven's  lucid  blue  serene, 
Or  glow  that  emeralds  freshly  broke  reveal, 

Had  all  been  vanquished  by  the  varied  sheen 
Of  this  bright  valley  set  with  shrubs  and  flowers, 

As  less  by  greater.     Nor  had  Nature  there 
Only  in  painting  spent  herself,  but  showers 

Of  odors  manifold  made  sweet  the  air 
With  one  strange  mingling  of  confused  perfume, 

And  there  new  spirits  chanting,  I  descried, 
'  Salve  Regina ! '  seated  on  the  bloom 

And  verdure  sheltered  by  the  dingle  side." 

— (T.  W.  P.,  Tr.),  vii,  70-84. 

The  sun  goes  down,  and  here  no  step  can  be  taken  with  safety 
after  the  darkness  comes  on.  The  sun  of  righteousness  shines 
intermittently  on  this  round  of  ante-Purgatory,  and  strictest  care 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia."  87 

must  be  taken  to  guard  against  the  temptations  that  come  up  from 
the  memories  of  the  old  life  during  the  night  intervals  of  the  soul. 

"  'Twas  now  the  hour  that  brings  to  men  at  sea, 

Who  in  the  morn  have  hid  sweet  friends  farewell, 
Fond  thoughts  and  longing  back  with  them  to  be ; 

And  thrills  the  pilgrim  with  a  tender  spell 
Of  love,  if  haply,  new  upon  his  way, 

He  faintly  hear  a  chime  from  some  far  bell, 
That  seems  to  mourn  the  dying  of  the  day ; 

When  I  forbore  my  listening  faculty 
To  mark  one  spirit  uprisen  amid  the  band 

Who  joined  both  palms  and  lifted  them  on  high 
(First  having  claimed  attention  with  his  hand) 

And  toward  the  Orient  bent  so  fixed  an  eye 
As  'twere  he  said,  '  My  God  !  on  thee  alone 

My  longing  rests.'     Then  from  his  lips  there  came 
'  Te  lucis  ante,'  so  devout  of  tone, 

So  sweet,  my  mind  was  ravished  by  the  same ; 
The  others  next,  full  sweetly  and  devout, 

Fixing  their  gaze  on  the  supernal  wheels, 
Followed  him  chanting  the  whole  Psalm  throughout. 


88  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

Now,  reader,  to  the  truth  iny  verse  conceals 
Make  sharp  thy  vision  ;  subtle  is  the  veil, 

So  fine  'twere  easily  passed  through  unseen." 

— (T.  W.  P.,  Tr.),  viii,  1-21. 

This  hymn  for  the  close  of  day  prays  for  guardianship  during 
the  night  of  the  soul  from  dreams,  phantasms,  and  from  the  ene- 
my. Temptation  has  for  it  the  world-renowned  symbol  of  the 
Serpent  in  the  Garden  of  Eden. 

"  I  saw  that  gentle  army,  meek  and  pale, 

Silently  gazing  upward  with  a  mien 
As  of  expectancy,  and  from  on  high 

Beheld  two  angels  with  two  swords  descend 
Which  flamed  with  fire,  hut,  as  I  could  descry, 

They  bare  no  points,  being  broken  at  the  end.1 
Green  robes,  in  hue  more  delicate  than  spring's 

Tender  new  leaves,  they  trailed  behind  and  fanned 
With  gentle  beating  of  their  verdant  wings. 

One,  coming  near,  just  over  us  took  stand ; 

1  The  guardian  angels,  whose  swords  of  divine  justice  are  blunted  with  mercy  through 
the  death  of  the  Redeemer. — Lombardo,  quoted  by  Scartazzini. 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia."  89 

Down  to  th'  opponent  bank  the  other  sped, 

So  that  the  spirits  were  between  them  grouped. 
Full  well  could  I  discern  each  flaxen  head ; 

But  in  their  faces  mine  eyes'  virtue  drooped, 
As  'twere  confounded  by  excess  and  dead. 

4  From  Mary's  bosom  they  have  both  come  here,' 
Sordello  said — '  this  valley  to  protect 

Against  the  serpent  that  will  soon  appear.' " 

— (T.  W.  P.,  Tr.),  viii,  22-39. 

The  compline  hymn  prayed  for  protection,  and  it  has  been  an- 
swered.    Now  the  "  enemy  "  appears. 

"  Sordello  to  his  side 
Drew  Virgil,  and  exclaimed  :  '  Behold  our  Foe  ! ' 

And  pointed  to  the  thing  which  he  descried ; 
And  where  that  small  vale's  barrier  sinks  most  low 

A  serpent  suddenly  was  seen  to  glide, 
Such  as  gave  Eve,  perchance,  the  fruit  of  woe. 

Through  flowers  and  herbage  came  that  evil  streak, 
To  lick  its  back  oft  turning  round  its  head, 

As  with  his  tongue  a  beast  his  fur  doth  sleek. 


90  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

I  was  not  looking,  so  must  leave  unsaid 

When  first  they  fluttered,  but  full  well  I  saw 

Both  heavenly  falcons  had  their  plumage  spread. 
Soon  as  the  serpent  felt  the  withering  flaw 

Of  those  green  wings,  it  vanished,  and  they  sped 
Up  to  their  posts  again  with  even  flight." 

— (T.  W.  P.,  Tr.),  viii,  95-108. 

Within  Purgatory  proper  we  are  told  that  there  is  no  longer 
any  temptation.  The  serpent  appears  no  more  after  passing  be- 
yond the  terrace  of  ante-Purgatory. 

§  15.  The  Purgatorial  Stairs. 

Dante  is  carried  in  sleep  by  Lucia  (Divine  Grace)  to  the  gate  of 
Purgatory,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  second  day  he  sees 

"...  a  gate,  and  leading  to  it  went 
Three  steps,  and  each  was  of  a  different  hue ; 
A  guardian  sat  there  keeping  the  ascent. 

As  yet  he  spake  not,  and  as  more  and  more 
Mine  eyes  I  opened,  on  the  topmost  stair 

I  saw  him  sitting,  and  the  look  he  wore 
Was  of  such  brightness  that  I  could  not  bear. 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  91 

The  rays  were  so  reflected  from  his  face 
By  a  drawn  sword  that  glistened  in  his  hand 
That  oft  I  turned  to  look  in  empty  space." 

— (T.  W.  P.,  Tr.),  ix,  76-84. 

"  We  therefore  came  and  stood 
At  the  first  stair,  which  was  of  marble  white, 

So  clear  and  burnished  that  therein  I  could 
Behold  myself,  how  I  appear  to  sight. 

The  second  was  a  rough  stone,  burnt  and  black 
Beyond  the  darkest  purple  ;  through  its  length 

And  crosswise  it  was  traversed  by  a  crack. 
The  third,  whose  mass  is  rested  on  their  strength, 

Appeared  to  me  of  porphyry,  flaming  red, 
Or  like  blood  spouting  from  a  vein." 

— (T.  W.  P.,  Tr.),  ix,  94-102. 

In  the  "  Summa  Theologica "  of  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  (iii,  90) 
Penitence,  which  is  the  theme  of  Purgatory,  is  defined  as  having 
three  parts,  contrition,  confession,  and  satisfaction.  Dante  places 
the  stair  of  confession  first.  It  mirrors  the  individual  as  he  appears. 
Contrition  calcines  the  soul  with  humility  and  renunciation,  and 


92  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

makes  cross-shaped  fissures  in  it  where  the  human  passions  and 
appetites  are  burnt  out.  Satisfaction  or  penance  is  the  third  part 
of  penitence,  and  is  defined  as,  first,  alms ;  second,  fasting ;  and 
third,  prayer.  Satisfaction  consists,  therefore,  in  the  repression 
of  selfishness,  and  especially  in  the  practical  seeking  for  the  good 
of  others.  Hence  the  third  step  flames  red  with  the  color  ot 
love. 

Two  keys,  golden  and  silver,  the  latter  of  discernment  of  the 
heart  and  the  former  of  authority  to  give  absolution,  are  in  the 
hands  of  Peter,  the  symbol  of  the  power  of  the  Church.  Seven 
p's  are  inscribed  on  the  forehead  on  entering  Purgatory ;  one  of 
these  seven  mortal  sins  (peccata)  is  to  be  purged  away  on  each  ter- 
race of  the  mountain. 

In  the  "  Inferno"  the  seven  mortal  sins  were  not  all  punished  di- 
rectly in  their  abstract  form  as  passions  or  appetites,  but  rather  in 
their  fruits ;  for  example,  "  the  daughters  of  anger,  of  envy,  of 
pride."  Here,  however,  sin  is  not  permitted  to  triumph  and  come 
to  its  fruitage ;  nay,  it  is  not  permitted  even  to  fill  the  desires. 
It  can  only  appear  in  the  soul  as  an  element  of  struggle  in  which 
the  will  for  holiness  is  victorious. 


Dantds  "Divina  Commedia"  93 

In  purgation  from  sin,  therefore,  the  sin  appears  directly  in  its 
proper  form,  and  the  soul  discerns  it  in  its  true  character  as  em- 
barrassment and  hindrance  to  its  higher  life. 

§  16.  The  First  Terrace  :   Purification  from  Pride. 

On  the  lowest  terrace  souls  are  purified  from  pride.  To  the 
soul  enlightened  by  the  good  of  the  intellect,  selfish  pride  seems  to 
convert  human  beings  into  caryatids  or  corbels  bent  to  the  earth 
by  their  loads.  The  soul  that  makes  itself  the  centre  of  the  uni- 
verse and  strives  to  live  on  that  principle  finds  on  his  shoulders 
the  entire  weight  of  the  world. 

"  As,  to  support  a  floor  or  roof  by  way  of  corbel,  one  sometimes 
sees  a  figure  join  the  knees  to  the  breast,  the  which,  out  of  its  un- 
truth, causes  a  true  discomfort  in  who  sees  it,  thus  saw  I  these 
shaped,  when  I  well  gave  heed.  True  is  it  that  they  were  more 
and  less  drawn  together,  according  as  they  had  more  or  less  on 
their  backs ;  and  he  who  had  most  endurance  in  his  mien,  weep- 
ing, seemed  to  say,  '  I  can  no  more.'  "—(A.  J.  Butler,  Tr.),  x,  130- 
139. 


94  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

These  proud  souls,  thus  bowed  down  beneath  the  weight  of  the 
universe,  chant  the  Lord's  prayer — the  prayer  taught  as  the  model 
of  true  humility  in  contrast  to  the  prayer  of  the  proud  Pharisee. 
Dante's  version  of  this  prayer  is  not  only  a  wonderful  paraphrase, 
but,  at  the  same  time,  a  high  order  of  commentary  on  its  meaning. 

Images  of  humility  are  sculptured  on  the  cornice  of  the  wall 
where  those  who  are  bent  with  pride  have  the  greatest  difficulty 
in  seeing  them.  Ideals  of  humility  are  not  easily  formed  in  the 
soul  when  it  is  first  resisting  its  inclinations  to  pride.  It  can  then 
see  only  the  effects  of  pride.  Hence  on  the  floor  beneath  their 
feet  are  sculptured  the  examples  of  pride  brought  low.  These 
they  can  see  readily  when  bowed  to  the  earth.  When  they  have 
recovered  a  more  erect  position  they  may  see  the  examples  of  hu- 
mility. The  souls  of  this  terrace  feel  the  true  relation  of  pride  to 
the  good  of  the  intellect.  They  chant  the  hymn  Te  Deum  Lauda- 
mus,  recognizing  God  as  infinitely  exalted  above  them,  while 
the  proud  in  the  Inferno  would  not  recognize  God  except  by 
blasphemy  and  violence.  At  the  holy  stairs  the  poets  hear  the 
beatitude  sung  "  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit,"  symbolizing  the 
victory  over  pride. 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"^  95 

§  17.  Second  lerrace :  Purification  from  Envy. 

On  the  next  terrace  the  rock  has  the  livid  hue  of  envy.  The 
souls  lean  one  upon  another  like  blind  men.  "  For  in  all  of  them 
a  thread  of  iron  bores  the  eyelid  and  sews  it  in  such  wise  as  is 
done  to  a  wild  falcon  because  he  remains  not  quiet." — (A.  J.  B., 
Tr.),  xiii,  70-72. 

These  souls  perceive  the  spiritual  effects  of  envy  to  be  the  blind- 
ing of  the  soul  to  all  true  and  just  estimate  of  their  fellow-men. 
Whereas  in  the  Inferno  each  envious  soul  rejoiced  in  his  superior 
craft  and  tried  to  break  the  social  bond  by  fraud,  here  they  mu- 
tually support  and  are  supported,  and  are  conscious  of  their  blind- 
ness. 

As  their  sight  is  taken  away,  they  do  not  behold  sculptures,  but 
hear  voices  in  the  air,  first  reciting  examples  of  generosity  and 
next  examples  of  the  dreadful  fruits  of  envy. 

On  entering  the  stairway  to  the  next  terrace  they  hear  the  beati- 
tude directed  against  envy  :  "  Blessed  are  the  merciful."  Blessed 
are  they  who  are  considerate  of  the  welfare  of  others.  In  spiritual 
things  the  more  participation,  the  more  each  gives  to  all,  the  more 


96  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

all  give  to  each,  and  the  greater  is  the  share  of  each,  because  the 
good  that  is  enjoyed  by  one's  fellows  is  reflected  back  from  them 
(E come  specchio  Vuno  all*  altro  rende),  so  that  the  individual  is 
blessed  by  all  the  spiritual  good  possessed  by  the  whole  of  society. 
Herein  is  contained  the  doctrine  of  "  the  Good  of  the  Intellect "  as 
regards  the  sin  of  envy. 

§  18.   Third  Terrace :  Dante's  Purification  from  Anger. 

On  the  third  terrace,  within  Purgatory  proper,  takes  place  the 
purification  from  anger.  Dante  himself  has  given  us  examples  of 
anger,  as  we  saw  in  the  Inferno,  for  instance,  in  his  treatment,  of 
Bocca  degli  Abati,  whose  hair  he  pulled  so  cruelly.  In  the  round 
of  anger,  and  still  more  in  the  round  of  treachery,  he  seemed  to 
give  way  to  anger.  He  made  some  effort  to  justify  himself  symboli- 
cally on  the  ground  that  it  was  his  hatred  of  the  sins  that  made 
him  mistreat  the  sinners.  Even  Yirgil  approves  (Inf.,  viii,  44, 
45)  of  his  rage  against  Filippo  Argenti,  formerly  an  arrogant  per- 
sonage {persona  orgogliosa]  but  now  weeping  (oedi  che  son  un  che 
piango).  "Why  should  he  be  spiteful  toward  some  of  the  sinners 
in  the  Inferno  and  pitiful  toward  others?  His  own  weaknesses 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  97 

and  proclivities  are  painted  by  his  sympathies  and  aversions.  On 
this  third  terrace,  however,  he  seems  to  confess  his  own  sin  and 
suffers  the  pain  of  purification  like  the  other  penitents. 

"  We  were  going  through  the  evening,  gazing  onward,  as  far  as 
the  eyes  could  reach,  against  the  late  and  shining  rays,  and  beheld 
little  by  little  a  smoke  draw  toward  us,  as  the  night  obscure ;  nor 
from  that  was  there  place  to  withdraw  one's  self ;  this  took  from  us 
our  eyes  and  the  pure  air." — (A.  J.  B.,  Tr.),  xv,  139-145. 

"  Gloom  of  hell,  and  of  a  night  bereft  of  every  planet  under  a 
poor  sky,  darkened  all  that  it  can  be  by  cloud  made  not  to  my 
sight  so  thick  a  veil  as  that  smoke  which  there  covered  us,  nor  of 
so  harsh  a  texture  to  feel ;  for  it  suifered  not  the  eye  to  stay  open  ; 
wherefore  my  learned  and  faithful  escort  moved  to  my  side  and 
offered  me  his  shoulder.  Just  as  a  blind  man  goes  behind  his 
guide  in  order  not  to  stray,  and  not  to  stumble  against  aught  that 
can  harm  him  or  maybe  slay  him,  I  was  going  through  the  bitter 
and  foul  air  listening  to  my  leader,  who  said  only  :  '  See  that  thou 
be  not  cut  off  from  me.'  I  began  to  hear  voices,  and  each  ap- 
peared to  be  praying  for  peace  and  mercy  to  the  Lamb  of  God  who 
takes  away  sins.  Only  Agnus  Dei  were  their  preludes ;  one  word 

5 


98  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

in  all  there  was,  and  one  measure,  so  that  there  appeared  among 
them  all  concord." — (A.  J.  B.,  Tr.),  xvi,  1-15. 

In  this  terrace  examples  of  meekness,  and  of  anger,  its  opposite, 
flash  before  the  mind  in  visions  as  they  walk  onward  through  the 
stifling  smoke.  Dante  listens  eagerly  to  another  discussion  of  the 
separate  functions  of  Church  and  State  and  of  the  bad  government 
in  that  State  where  "  the  shepherd  who  goes  before  may  chew  the 
cud,  but  has  not  the  hooves  divided."  The  leader  ruminates  (*'.  e.y 
chews  the  cud),  or  theorizes  and  comes  to  know  divine  wisdom  as 
a  teacher,  but  does  not  discriminate  in  temporal  affairs  and  divide 
good  from  evil  conduct  (discretionem  boni  et  mali,  as  St.  Augus- 
tine suggests). 

At  the  close  of  the  second  day  they  reach  the  stairway  and 
hear  the  beatitude  directed  against  anger :  "  Blessed  are  the 
Peace-makers ! " 

§  19.  Fourth  Terrace  :  Sloth  and  its  Relation  to  the  other  Mortal 

Sins. 

On  the  fourth  terrace  Virgil  explains  to  Dante  the  relation  of 
the  seven  mortal  sins  to  each  other,  newly  defining  them  all. 


Daniels  "Divina  Commedia"  99 

Love  is  the  common  ground.  Love  remiss  is  sloth,  the  mortal  sin 
purged  away  on  this  terrace.  Love  perverted  by  selfishness,  be- 
comes love  of  evil  to  one's  neighbor,  and  forms  the  essence  of  the 
three  sins — pride,  envy,  and  anger.  Love  excessive  is  the  basis  of 
the  three  sins  of  incontinence — lust,  gluttony,  and  avarice. 

These  sins  are  called  mortal  or  deadly  because  they  attack  the 
conditions  of  spiritual  life,  or,  what  is  the  same  thing,  the  founda- 
tions of  the  institutions  of  civilization.  Pride,  the  most  deadly 
of  the  seven,  strikes  not  only  against  the  fruits  of  social  union, 
but  also  against  the  essence  of  social  union  in  itself.  It  refuses  to 
associate.  Its  aim  is  to  isolate  itself  from  the  universe.  Hence 
its  fruits  are  treachery  in  the  family,  the  State,  and  the  Church. 
It  aims  blows  directly  against  the  existence  of  the  social  bond. 
Its  effect  on  the  soul  is  symbolized  by  the  frozen  lake  Cocytus. 

Envy  is  not  so  deadly  as  pride,  but  far  more  fatal  than  anger. 
Envy,  by  means  of  fraud,  strikes  against  the  social  tie  that  binds 
society  together,  while  anger  induces  violence,  which  strikes  only 
particular  individuals  and  not  the  social  bond.  Envy  strikes 
against  the  institution  of  property,  rendering  it  insecure,  and  de- 
stroying the  trust  of  men  in  the  means  of  achieving  their  freedom 


100  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

from  wants  of  food,  clothing,  and  shelter.  It  attacks  personality 
itself  by  hypocrisy,  flattery,  fraudulent  impersonation,  evil  coun- 
sel, and  schism,  rendering  every  man  distrustful  of  his  fellows. 
But  it  does  not  isolate  man  so  deeply  and  in  so  deadly  a  manner 
as  Pride.  Pride  severs  all  social  intercourse,  while  Envy  desires 
to  reap  the  fruits  of  social  life,  but  at  the  expense  of  society  itself, 
thus  setting  up  a  contradiction  in  the  form  of  its  effort.  Envy 
wishes  to  appropriate  the  good  of  men,  but  through  their  loss ; 
Pride  wishes  no  share  either  in  society  or  in  its  fruits. 

Anger  produces  these  evils  in  a  less  degree,  because  it  is  special 
in  the  character  of  its  effects. 

.  Avarice  and  Waste  injure  society  by  diverting  property  from 
its  place  as  a  means  of  realizing  human  freedom.  The  social  in- 
terchange by  which  the  individual  is  enabled  to  contribute  some- 
thing of  his  own  deeds  for  the  benefit  of  his  fellow-men,  and  to 
draw  out  in  his  turn  from  the  market  of  the  world  his  share  in  its 
aggregate  of  productions,  is  rendered  possible  by  means  of  the  in- 
stitution of  private  property.  There  could  be  no  transfer  of  the 
individual  will  to  the  social  whole  unless  the  individual  could  im- 
press his  will  on  things  and  make  them  his  property.  Conse- 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  101 

quently,  without  the  institution  of  private  property,  he  could  not 
help  society,  and  this  would  render  impossible,  on  the  other  hand, 
his  participation  in  the  labor  of  the  race — he  could  receive  nothing 
from  his  fellow-men,  because  nothing  could  be  collected  or  trans- 
mitted. Hence  the  significance  of  property,  and  hence  the  dead- 
liness  of  the  sin  which  perverts  property  from  its  usefulness  by 
avarice  or  wastefulness. 

Gluttony  is  more  of  a  private  nature  than  avarice.  Avarice 
touches  at  once  the  material  bond  of  the  practical  will-power  of 
society,  while  gluttony  or  intemperance  unfits  the  individual  to 
fulfil  his  functions  as  a  member  of  institutions,  the  family,  civil 
society,  the  State,  the  Church.  Consequently  the  good  that  would 
flow  from  him  is  greatly  diminished  or  entirely  cut  off.  He  sinks 
down  below  the  condition  of  a  brute  and  follows  appetite  alone, 
thus  paralyzing  his  will  and  cutting  himself  off  from  the  dominion 
over  nature  in  time  and  space. 

Lust  attacks  the  institution  of  the  family.  It  is  a  deadly  sin, 
because  the  family  is  the  element  of  all  other  institutions,  their 
material  presupposition.  It  is  placed  above  intemperance,  because 
the  latter  is  nearly  as  destructive  to  the  family  and  directly  more 


102  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

destructive  to  the  industrial  well-being  of  society,  and  because  in- 
temperance leads  more  directly  to  the  sins  of  sloth  and  anger. 
Each  nation  has  its  besetting  sins.  Our  Norman  Anglo-Saxon 
race,  most  given  to  independent  individuality  of  all  races,  is,  per- 
haps, liable  to  pride  and  avarice  more  than  other  nations,  showing 
its  individuality  against  the  State  and  using  its  free-will  in  creat- 
ing an  independence  in  the  shape  of  a  private  fortune ;  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  it  is  perhaps  more  inclined  than  other  peoples  to 
respect  the  sacredness  of  the  family.  Hence,  lust  would  change 
places  with  avarice  or  pride  in  the  hierarchy  of  sins,  as  formulated 
by  a  theologian  of  Old  or  New  England. 

After  the  new  definition  of  the  mortal  sins  and  their  reduction 
to  a  system  by  Yirgil,  he  proceeds  in  the  eighteenth  canto  to  dis- 
course on  ethics.  The  hour  of  midnight  has  approached  and  the 
poets,  seated  at  the  top  of  the  stairway,  are  looking  at  the  gibbous 
moon  in  the  west,  when  suddenly  they  are  startled  by  a  mighty 
rout  of  souls,  who  are  purging  away  the  sin  of  sloth  by  run- 
ning furiously  and  shouting  instances  of  zeal  and  energy.  This 
example  of  zeal  is  all  the  more  surprising  after  the  words  of  Sor- 
dello  relative  to  the  effect  of  darkness  on  the  soul  in  ante-Purga- 


Dante's  "Divina  (Jommedia."  103 

tory :  "  To  go  upward  in  the  night  is  not  possible ;  even  this  line 
thou  couldst  not  pass  after  the  set  of  sun."  We  note  here  that 
the  moon,  or  the  reflected  light  of  mere  forms  and  ceremonies, 
serves  to  guide  the  reformed  slothful  people. 

Later  in  the  night  Dante  dreams  the  dream  of  the  Siren  who 
(symbol  of  the  sin  here  purged  away)  charms  one  aside  from  the 
labors  of  duty  and  plunges  him  in  a  dream  of  slothful  ease  and 
luxury.  It  is  remarked  that  sloth  assails  the  whole  range  of  moral 
virtues,  theoretical  and  practical. 

§  20.  ftifth  Terrace :  Purification  from  Avarice. 

On  the  fifth  terrace  Dante  sees  the  purification  from  avarice, 
people  realizing  its  grovelling  nature  as  taking  the  mind  off  from 
spiritual  things  and  placing  them  on  things  of  earth  earthy.  In 
Canto  XX  we  hear  a  brief  resume  of  French  history — hinting  of 
the  relation  of  the  French  nation  to  avarice  (its  bribery  by  the  papal 
court).  The  mountain  trembles  and  the  hymn  "  Gloria  in  Excel- 
sis  "  peals  out,  and  the  shade  of  the  poet  Statius  emerges  from  the 
terrace  below  into  the  fifth.  All  souls  in  a  state  of  penitence  re- 
joice and  praise  God  when  one  of  their  number  makes  progress. 


104  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

§  21.  Sixth  Terrace:  Purgation  of  the  Intemperate. 

On  the  sixth  terrace  the  intemperate  resist  their  inordinate  appe- 
tites in  the  presence  of  food  and  drink  that  invite  the  senses.  To 
them  gluttony  is  a  fetter  fastening  the  spirit  to  food  and  drink  so 
that  it  is  not  able  to  attend  to  spiritual  matters.  Instead  of  eating 
and  drinking  with  their  mouths,  they  recall  the  words  of  the 
Psalmist :  "  Open  thou  my  lips  and  my  mouth  shall  show  forth 
thy  praise."  They  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness  and  not 
after  other  food. 

§  22.  Seventh  Terrace :  Dante's  Purification  from  Lust. 

On  the  seventh  terrace  the  sin  of  lust  is  purged  by  tire.  The  souls 
realize  that  their  lustful  passions  are  consuming  flames.  Dante 
himself  receives  purification  on  this  terrace  again.  He  passes 
through  a  tire  of  which  he  says :  "  I  would  have  flung  myself  into 
boiling  glass  to  cool  me,  so  immeasurable  was  the  degree  of  heat  " 
in  the  purifying  flame.  And  yet  the  souls  are  careful  not  to  step 
out  of  the  flame  but  to  keep  within  its  chaste  pains  and  receive  its 
purification.  "  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall  see 


Dante's  "J)ivina  Commedia."  105 

God  "  is  the  beatitude  directed  against  lust.  To  see  the  eyes  of 
Beatrice,  or  the  Revelation  of  Divine  Theology,  Dante  must  pass 
through  the  flame  of  purification  and  become  pure  in  heart.  So 
Virgil,  in  the  midst  of  the  flames,  discourses  of  Beatrice  to  encour- 
age Dante. 

§  23.   The  Terrestrial  Paradise. 

In  the  Terrestrial  Paradise,  which  is  the  place  of  transfigured 
and  perfected  human  society  on  earth,  Dante  finds  the  Church. 
It  is  a  complex  symbol  bodying  forth  the  visible  Church  '  and  its 
history  (as  commentary  has  sufficiently  shown). 

'  The  seven  candlesticks  denoting  the  seven  gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  the  seven  bands 
of  color  streaming  out  from  them,  the  sacraments,  or  else  the  influences  of  the  gifts ;  the 
ten  paces,  the  ten  commandments  ;  the  twenty-four  elders,  the  twenty-four  books  of  the 
Old  Testament  crowned  with  the  lilies  of  faith  ;  the  four  beasts  (quattro  animali)  crowned 
with  green  leaves,  the  four  gospels  clad  in  the  color  of  hope  (or  salvation) ;  the  six  wings 
of  protection  extending  in  the  six  possible  directions  in  space,  and  full  of  eyes  for  provi- 
dential guardianship  (?),  or  perhaps  the  wings  denote  inspiration  and  the  eyes  the  full- 
ness  of  divine  vision  ;  the  car  of  the  visible  Church  in  their  midst,  on  two  wheels,  the 
old  and  the  new  dispensations,  or  rather,  as  the  wheels  serve  as  the  means  by  which  the 
Church  moves  forward,  they  signify  revelation  and  tradition  (Philalethes)  or  the  priest- 
hood and  the  monks  (Witte) ;  the  griffon  with  his  two  bodies  signifies  the  divine-human 
founder  of  the  Church ;  the  lion's  body,  colored  white  (faith)  and  vermilion  (charity  or 
grace),  symbolizes  the  human  part  and  the  eagle's  head  and  wings  of  gold  the  divine 


106  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

After  Dante  beholds  the  history  of  the  Church  symbolized  and 
its  future  prophesied,  great  emphasis  being  placed  on  its  relations 


part,  the  wings  rising  so  high  that  their  ends  can  not  be  seen  extending  into  the  mystic 
and  incomprehensible  Godhead  ;  the  wings,  one  of  justice  and  the  other  of  mercy,  rise 
through  the  bands  of  influence  that  stream  from  the  candlesticks,  including  one  sacra- 
ment— that  of  repentance — between  the  wings  as  the  most  essential  one  of  Purgatory,  and 
three  sacraments  on  each  side  of  both  wings ;  the  griffon  draws  the  car  by  its  shaft,  the 
cross,  and  attaches  it  to  a  tree — a  tree  that  suggests  the  tree  of  knowledge  of  good  and 
evil  in  Paradise,  and  yet  it  would  seem  that  Dante  refers  to  the  fixing  of  the  papal  seat 
at  Rome.  Three  dames — white,  green,  and  red,  to  signify  the  three  celestial  virtues,  faith, 
hope,  and  charity — dance  by  the  side  of  the  right  wheel,  while  four  dames,  clad  in  pur- 
ple, signify  the  four  cardinal  or  secular  virtues,  one  of  whom  (Prudence)  has  three  eyes 
(counsel,  agreement,  and  habit)  dance  by  the  left  wheel.  Then  follow  the  symbols  of 
the  remaining  books  of  the  New  Testament — St.  Luke  (of  Acts),  St.  Paul,  Saints  Peter, 
John,  James,  and  Jude  for  their  epistles ;  a  solitary  old  man  sleeping,  but  with  subtle 
countenance,  for  Revelation.  Beatrice  now  descends  crowned  with  olive  (peace)  over  a 
white  veil  (faith),  in  a  green  mantle  (hope),  and  clad  in  the  color  of  a  living  flame 
(love).  She  signifies  divine  theology  or  revelation  (Scartazzini)  or  grace  that  perseveres 
(Philalethes),  and  much  else  no  doubt — infinite  aspiration  of  the  soul.  Dante  is  up- 
braided for  unfaithfulness  to  this  highest  aspiration ;  he  has  pursued  other  aims,  sought 
to  capture  the  leopard ;  sought  also  to  explain  the  world  by  an  inferior  philosophy  (the 
quetta  scuola  ch1  hai  seguitata  e  sua  dottrina  spoken  of  in  XXXIII,  89,  90,  and  contrasted 
with  the  divine  way).  The  reference  to  unfaithfulness  in  Canto  XXX  is  perhaps  the 
symbolic  statement  of  what  is  literally  named  in  Canto  XXXIII  as  a  philosophic  doc- 
trine, and  this  seems  to  be  acknowledged  by  Dante  (XXXIII,  92).  It  was  perhaps  some 
doctrine  derived  from  the  Arabian  commentators  like  Averrhoes,  who  inclined  toward 
Pantheism  and  denied  individual  immortality  to  men.  In  his  commentary  on  Aristotle's 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  107 

to  the  Empire,  he  passes  through  the  waters  of  Lethe  and  be- 
comes oblivious  of  his  mortal  defects. 

§  24.  The  Spiritual  Sense  of  "Lethe." 

That  Lethe  is  an  essential  product  of  the  process  of  purification 
must  be  obvious  to  every  one  who  reflects  upon  the  nature  of  it. 
The  river  of  forgetfulness  does  not  destroy  or  impair  in  any  way 
the  recollection  of  deeds  done  in  the  body,  but  it  changes  essen- 
tially the  quality  of  that  memory.  In  the  Inferno  state  of  the 
soul  sins  had  been  committed  as  though  they  were  the  special  pri- 
vate or  personal  interest  of  the  individual  doer,  and  their  punish- 
ment was  looked  upon  as  though  coming  from  an  alien  interest 
outside  of  the  doer.  The  memory  of  the  Inferno  state  of  the  soul, 
therefore,  would  preserve  the  dualism  of  the  selfish  me  versus  the 
avenging  social  whole.  But  Purgatory  so  eradicates  this  sense  of 

psychology  Averrhoes  understands  "  the  Philosopher  "  to  prove  that  man  has  only  a 
"  passive  "  intellect  which  perishes  at  death,  while  the  "  active  intellect,"  which  is  the 
soul  of  the  world,  alone  possesses  persistent  being.  This  was  also  the  interpretation 
of  Alexander  of  Aphrodisias.  St.  Thomas  Aquinas's  greatest  service  to  Christian 
Theology  is  his  refutation  of  this  error  which  places  the  principle  of  individuality  in  the 
passive  rather  than  in  the  active  part  of  the  human  soul. 


108  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

dualism  that  it  leads  the  individual  to  feel  that  his  real  essential  self 
—his  divine  self,  in  fact — is  the  self  embodied  in  the  institutions 
of  civilization.  With  this  insight  he  comes  to  see  all  human  his- 
tory as  his  own  history,  and  to  sympathize  with  the  action  of  the 
social  whole  in  relation  to  the  individual.  Hence  he  adopts  the 
action  of  the  social  whole  as  his  own  essential  act  and  ignores  his 
particular  rights  and  wrongs  as  opposed  to  the  universal  right  of 
society.  He  therefore  loses  the  interest  of  personal  memory  in 
himself  and  looks  upon  himself  as  an  alien  personality  quite  out- 
side of  his  new  self  that  has  grown  as  a  second  nature,  a  regener- 
ated self,  through  the  struggle  of  Purgatory.  He  loves  his  new 
life,  which  is  in  conformity  with  the  life  of  civilization  and  the 
Divine  world-order,  and  he  loves  whatever  deeds  of  his  old  life 
contributed  to  forming  this  new  life.  This  is  the  bath  in  the 
stream  Eunoe,  which  brings  to  memory  the  good  deeds  of  the  past 
life.  The  bath  in  Lethe  is  the  death  of  the  old  life. 

Moreover,  there  is  a  certain  progress  in  the  theoretical  mind 
itself  which  Dante  and  his  like  well  know  that  has  an  effect  in 
raising  the  soul  above  sense  and  memory  into  the  realm  of  the  in- 
tuition of  ideas.  After  any  one  has  thoroughly  mastered  the  sci- 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  109 

entific  knowledge  of  a  given  province  he  abides  by  the  general 
symbols  that  sum  up  his  knowledge  in  the  form  of  abstract  ideas. 
These  indicate  to  him  not  mere  dead  classifications  and  mere  sum- 
maries of  observation  in  the  form  of  statistics,  but  concrete  prin- 
ciples involving  both  energies  and  laws,  so  that  they  explain  not 
only  all  the  facts  and  phenomena  that  are  collected  in  the  science, 
but  also  furnish  a  permanent  image  of  the  eternal  process  mani- 
fested in  the  facts  and  phenomena  treated  of  in  the  science  of 
which  he  has  become  the  master. 

At  this  point  of  insight  into  principles  and  their  energies  and 
laws  which  produce  the  processes  of  nature  and  life,  the  mind 
contemplates  what  is  essential  and  therefore  necessary,  and  is 
thereupon  released  from  the  obligation  to  retain  all  the  data  of 
observation  which  had  to  be  used  at  first  in  order  to  discover  the 
principle.  The  facts  and  data  are  only  a  scaffolding  useful  while 
the  temple  was  building.  The  principles,  for  example,  of  botany 
do  not  depend  on  the  facts  and  phenomena  which  have  furnished 
the  botanists  the  data  on  which  they  have  climbed  up  to  laws  and 
principles.  Those  data  were  only  illustrations  flowing  from  those 
principles,  and  not  the  causes  of  the  principles  themselves.  The 


110  TJie  Spiritual  Sense  of 

principles  once  established  and  in  the  mind,  those  data  may  drop 
away  as  so  much  scaffolding,  for  the  temple  is  not  built  on  the 
scaffolding  but  on  its  own  foundation  ;  and,  although  the  scaffold 
is  useful  in  the  process  of  building,  it  is  now  no  longer  needed. 
So  the  facts  and  phenomena  are  the  accidental  illustrations  of  the 
principles  which  pointed  the  way  to  their  discovery  and  now  may 
be  forgotten.  The  scientific  mind  bathes  in  the  waters  of  Lethe 
and  washes  away  the  memory  of  facts  that  once  imprisoned  it  in 
mechanical  theories,  or  systems  of  classification,  or  statistical  results. 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia."  Ill 

III.  THE  "PABADISO." 
§  25.  The  Ascent  to  Paradise. 

Dante  gazes  into  the  eyes  of  Beatrice1  (symbolizing  Divine 
Knowledge,  Christian  Theology,  or  Revelation),  and  now  ascends 


1  Beatrice  may  signify  perfecting  grace,  as  Philalethes  thinks,  or  Revelation,  as  Scar- 
tazzini  prefers.  But  Dante  himself  (in  the  "Convito,"  ii,  13)  tells  us  that  he  imaged 
Philosophy  under  the  form  of  a  gentle  lady  and  compassionate,  and,  after  thirty  months 
of  study  of  Boethius,  he  began  to  feel  the  sweetness  of  this  lady  so  much  that  his  love 
for  her  chased  away  all  other  thoughts.  In  Chapter  II  of  the  second  Treatise  he  alludes 
to  Beatrice  as  the  gentle  lady  of  the  "  Vita  Nuova,"  and  in  Chapter  XVI  he  discourses  at 
length  on  the  fair  lady  Philosophy :  "  The  spirit  made  me  look  on  a  fair  lady,  in  which 
passage  it  should  be  understood  that  this  lady  is  Philosophy ;  a  lady  full  of  sweetness, 
indeed,  adorned  with  modesty,  wonderful  in  her  wisdom,  the  glory  of  freedom.  .  . 
Whoever  desires  to  see  his  salvation  must  look  steadfastly  into  this  Lady's  eyes : 

'  Chi  veder  vuol  la  salute, 
Faccia  che  gli  occhi  d'esta  donna  miri.' 

The  eyes  of  the  Lady  are  her  demonstrations  which  look  straight  into  the  eyes  of  the 
intellect,  enamor  the  soul,  and  emancipate  it  from  all  fettering  conditions." 

If  one  understands  by  Philosophy  what  Dante  expounds  in  his  "  Convito,"  it  signifies 
the  insight  into  a  Divine  Reason  as  First  Cause  without  envy  and  full  of  goodness  or 
grace.  This  doctrine  is  therefore  the  same  as  perfecting  grace  and  the  same  as  the 


112  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

to  the  celestial  spheres.  There  are  ten  heavens  in  all,  of  which 
the  lowest  and  nearest  to  the  earth  is  the  heaven  of  the  moon, 
while  the  highest  heaven  is  the  Empyrean. 

The  doctrine  already  alluded  to  as  the  fundamental  principle 
of  Christianity — to  wit,  that  God  is  pure  form,  pure  self-dis- 
tinction, pure  consciousness,  pure  personality — is  stated  in  the 
following  discourse  of  Beatrice  placed  in  the  first  canto  of  the 
"  Paradiso  " : 

"  All  things,  whate'er  they  be, 

Have  order '  among  themselves,  and  this  is  form, 

That  makes  the  universe  resemble  Grod. 

substance  of  Revelation.  For  Reason  is  divine-human.  In  the  "Paradiso,"  Canto  xxxi, 
Beatrice  leaves  Dante,  and  St.  Bernard  takes  her  place.  This,  perhaps,  means  that  Phi- 
losophy, daughter  of  God  though  she  be  ("  Convito,"  ii.  13),  does  not  suffice  to  reveal  the 
mystery  of  the  Trinity.  St.  Bernard  as  religious  mystic  expounds  the  White  Rose  of 
Paradise,  symbol  of  the  Invisible  Church,  corresponding  to  the  Visible  Church  on  the  sum- 
mit of  the  purgatorial  mount.  He  also  conducts  him  to  the  vision  of  the  Triune  God. 
It  makes  no  difference  whether  Beatrice  is  interpreted  as  Philosophy  if  understood  in 
the  sense  that  Dante  explains  in  the  "  Convito,"  or  as  Divine  Theology  as  unfolded  by 
St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  or  as  perfecting  grace  if  understood  as  the  illuminating  effects  of 
this  insight  which  is  the  vision  of  God,  or  as  Revelation  if  understood  as  producing 
this  same  vision  of  God. 

1  Order  is  the  technical  expression  for  dependence  of  the  lower  beings  on  the  Highest 
and  for  the  revelation  of  the  Power  of  the  Highest  in  the  lower.  In  the  "  Convito " 


Dantds  "Divina  Commedia."  113 

Here  do  the  higher  creatures  see  the  footprints 
Of  the  Eternal  Power,  which  is  the  end 
Whereto  is  made  the  law  already  mentioned. 
In  the  order  that  I  speak  of  are  inclined 
All  natures,  by  their  destinies  diverse, 
More  or  less  near  unto  their  origin  ; 
Hence  they  move  onward  unto  ports  diverse 
O'er  the  great  sea  of  heing ;  and  each  one 
With  instinct  given  it  which  bears  it  on. 
This  bears  away  the  fire  toward  the  moon ; 
This  is  in  mortal  hearts  the  motive  power ; 
This  binds  together  and  unites  the  earth. 
Nor  only  the  created  things  that  are 
Without  intelligence  this  bow  shoots  forth, 
But  those  that  have  both  intellect  and  love. 


(iii,  7)  Dante  quotes  from  the  "  Book  of  Causes  " :  "  The  First  Goodness  sends  His  good 
gifts  forth  upon  things  in  one  stream."  Each  thing,  adds  he,  receives  from  this  stream 
according  to  the  mode  of  its  powers  (virtu)  and  its  nature.  And,  again  (iv,  8),  he 
quotes  St.  Thomas  as  saying  "  To  know  the  order  of  one  thing  to  another  is  the  proper 
act  of  Reason."  To  perceive  dependencies  in  nature  is  to  perceive  unity,  and  therefore 
to  perceive  the  "  Form  that  makes  the  universe  resemble  God." 


114  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

The  Providence  that  regulates  all  this 
Makes  with  its  light  the  heaven  forever  quiet, 
Wherein  that  turns  which  has  the  greatest  haste." 

—(Longfellow,  Tr.),  "Paradiso,"  Canto  i,  103-123. 

The  lowest  rests  on  the  highest,  and  not  the  highest  on  the 
lowest.  Things  are  substantial  just  in  proportion  to  their 
degree  of  participation  in  the  divine  self-activity.  The  lack 
of  self-activity  appears  as  external  impulsion  and  fate,  to  finite 
things. 

The  doctrine  of  ten  heavens  draws  its  artificial  form  from  the 
doctrine  of  the  pseudo-Dionysius  concerning  the  Celestial  Hierarchy, 
and  will  be  considered  under  the  subject  of  Dante's  Mythology. 
For  the  present  we  will  limit  our  attention  to  the  ethical  contents 
of  the  several  heavens  in  their  order. 

§  26.  The  Heaven  of  the  Moon,  or  the  Ritualists. 

Beatrice  fixes  her  eyes  on  the  Sun — i.  e.,  draws  light  from  The- 
ology ("luce  virtuosissima  Filosofia,"  "  Conv.,"  iv,  1),  and  by  this 
means  elevates  herself  to  the  heaven  of  the  moon,  Dante  follow- 
ing by  the  light  reflected  from  her  eyes : 


Dantds  "Divina  Commedia"  115 

"  It  seemed  to  me  a  cloud  encompassed  us, 
Luminous,  dense,  consolidate,  and  bright 
As  adamant  on  which  the  sun  is  striking. 
Into  itself  did  the  eternal  pearl 
Receive  us,  as  water  doth  receive 
A  ray  of  light,  remaining  still  unbroken. 
If  I  was  body  (and  we  here  conceive  not 
How  one  dimension  tolerates  another, 
Which  needs  must  be  if  body  enter  body), 
More  the  desire  should  be  enkindled  in  us 
That  essence  to  behold,  wherein  is  seen 
How  God  and  our  own  nature  were  united." 

—  (L.  Tr.),  ii,  31-42. 

They  enter  the  substance  of  the  moon  realizing  the  fact  that 
one  dimension  tolerates  another.  For  in  spiritual  things  all  may 
participate  without  diminution  of  shares,  while  in  material  things 
there  is  exclusion  and  division.  Dante  beholds  the  outlines  of 
faces  prompt  to  speak,  but  they  seem  so  much  like  reflections  that 
he  supposes  them  to  be  "  mirrored  semblances,"  and  looks  around 
to  see  the  persons  that  are  thus  reflected.  Beatrice  corrects  his 


116  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

error  and  assures  him  that  these  are  real  souls  assigned  to  the 
sphere  of  the  moon  for  the  breaking  of  some  vow. 

They  were  forced  by  external  influences  to  break  their  vows, 
but  had  their  wills  been  firm  unto  death  they  would  not  have  been 
compelled.  This  heaven  of  the  moon,  therefore,  holds  souls  who 
have  attained  heaven,  but  with  some  defect  of  will.  In  a  dis- 
course on  the  nature  of  heaven,  it  is  explained  to  Dante  that 
everywhere  in  heaven  is  Paradise,  and  that  each  soul  belongs  to  all 
the  heavens,  although  he  will  behold  the  special  heavens  tilled 
each  with  souls  of  a  certain  rank  or  degree,  in  order  to  teach  him 
that  there  are  different  degrees  of  celestial  growth,  notwithstand- 
ing each  one  has  access  to  all  the  heavens. 

The  moon  was  known  to  Dante  to  shine  with  reflected  light  and 
to  be  nearest  to  the  earth.  The  moon  also  presents  phases,  wax- 
ing and  waning  because  of  relation  to  another  light.  Moreover, 
it  has  dark  and  light  spots  on  itc  surface.  It,  therefore,  is  a  proper 
symbol  for  the  heaven  that  contains  those  souls  who  have  willed  in 
conformity  to  the  divine  will,  but  intermittently  and  in  a  formal 
manner,  or  who  have  not  willed  supremely  the  divine.  Hence 
they  are  fittingly  placed  here  in  the  moon  and  appear  as  though 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  117 

reflections  and  not  substances.  Inasmuch  as  their  obedience  to 
prescribed  forms  and  ceremonies  of  the  Church  is  very  nearly  me- 
chanical, and  not  from  genuine  insight,  you  can  scarcely  distin- 
guish their  actuality  from  the  reflection  of  somebody  else's  will  in 
which  they  appear.  He  who  made  the  forms  and  ceremonies,  and 
who  taught  them  how  to  perform  them,  lives  in  them  still  as  their 
reality — they  manifest  his  will  rather  than  their  own  freedom. 
If  they  happen  to  be  derelict  from  lack  of  firmness  of  will,  yielding 
to  others  who  assume  authority  over  them,  their  course  resembles 
still  more  the  inconstancy  of  the  moon,  as  appears  in  its  changes. 
The  spirits  of  the  formal  order  show  inconstancy  and  instability, 
therefore,  because  they  appear  and  disappear  in  the  will  of  an- 
other, according  as  it  interrupts  or  changes  its  relation  to  them  by 
some  external  circumstance.  And  we  must  supply  this  natural 
inference  to  Dante's  picture  and  see  in  these  lunar  souls  not  only 
the  interposition  of  violent  family  authority,  as  in  the  case  of 
Piccarda,  dragged  away  from  monastic  vows  by  her  brother,  Corso 
Donati,  but  also  the  lunar  variations  of  temperament,  moods,  and 
external  conditions. 


118  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

§  27.  The  Heavens  of  Imperfect   Wills. 

The  heavens  of  imperfect  wills  include  also  those  of  Mercury 
and  Venus.  We  must  keep  in  mind  this  distinction  between  true 
and  spurious  individuality.  The  true  individuality  energizes  to 
produce  for  itself  and  within  itself,  and  also  on  the  world,  the 
divine  form  of  God's  will.  The  more  completely  it  does  this,  the 
more  completely  it  fills  itself  with  divine  freedom,  and  thus  be- 
comes independent,  or  symbolically  able  to  shine  by  its  own  light, 
for  its  own  light  arises  from  energizing  according  to  the  divine 
form.  The  spurious  individuality  arises  from  intermingling  any 
kind  or  variety  of  selfishness  between  itself  and  the  divine — or,  in 
other  words,  from  acting  with  partial  or  entire  reference  to  itself 
instead  of  the  divine. 

In  the  moon  the  will  does  not  cast  life  into  the  scale,  but  lets  love 
of  life  determine  its  actions  in  a  last  resort.  Besides,  it  acts  wholly 
from  another's  insight  even  when  it  obeys  the  divine  commands. 

§  28.   The   Pusillanimous,   the   Procrastinators,   and  the 
Formalists. 

The  correspondence  between  these  spirits  of  the  moon  and  the 
pusillanimous  ones  on  the  shore  of  Acheron  will  not  fail  to  strike 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  119 

us.  They  had  no  choice  of  their  own,  but  went  where  the  wasps 
and  hornets  of  chance  and  circumstance  impelled  them.  The 
souls  who  have  procrastinated  repentance  until  the  last  moment 
likewise  are  placed  on  the  outer  terrace  of  Purgatory,  and  not  al- 
lowed to  enter  St.  Peter's  gate.  The  pusillanimous,  the  procras- 
tinators,  and  the  mechanical  formalists  are  found  on  the  outer 
verges  of  the  three  worlds.  But,  although  formalists,  these  souls 
sacrifice  their  inclinations  for  the  service  of  the  Church  and  are  in 
Paradise,  though  immature  in  spiritual  insight. 

§  29.  The  Heaven  of  Mercury.     The  Love  of  Fame. 

In  the  Heaven  of  Mercury  the  love  of  fame  prevents  the  perfect 
devotion  of  the  hero  to  a  divine  cause.  Perfect  devotion  would 
elevate  him  to  Mars  or  Jupiter.  The  Mercurial  saint  does  not 
abandon  himself  to  the  cause  for  itself  alone,  but  only  as  moved 
by  a  love  of  fame. 

Fame  is  the  reflection,  not  of  the  deed  itself,  shining  in  us  as 
inspired  by  the  deepest  conviction,  but  the  reflection  of  the  deed 
shining  in  the  recognition  of  our  fellow-men.  This  destroys  or 
affects  our  freedom.  We  have  not  the  true  celestial  revolution 


120  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

derived  From  the  Primum  Mobile,  but  a  defective  sort  of  orbit — 
an  epicycle,  in  fact. 

The  planets  Mercury  and  Yenus  move  in  epicycles.  They 
drive  out  of  their  course  in  order  to  move  round  the  sun  as  they 
pass  through  the  zodiac.  They  never  get  far  away  from  the  sun, 
but  pass  through  the  zodiac  only  because  the  sun  in  his  course 
carries  them  around  it.  They  act,  not  from  an  independent  pur- 
pose of  their  own,  to  complete  the  course  of  the  celestial  revolu- 
tion of  themselves.  The  sun  is  the  great  luminary  of  day,  sym- 
bolizing the  spiritual  light  as  well.  Hence  it  not  improperly 
means  fame  for  Mercury. 

Mercury  is  usually  eclipsed  by  the  sun's  rays,  and  is  rarely  ever 
seen  because  of  its  closeness  to  the  sun.  So,  too,  in  case  of  the 
Mercurial  saint,  we  cannot  tell  how  much  he  is  moved  by  his  own 
insight  into  what  is  holy,  and  how  much  he  is  impelled  by  the 
fame  attached  to  the  cause  that  he  engages  in.  It  is  his  cause 
that  ennobles  him,  and  we  do  riot  know  how  much  to  subtract 
from  him  on  account  of  his  selfish  ambition.  The  sun  of  his  cause 
is  to  be  accredited  with  much  of  his  action. 

The  true  hero  who  devotes  himself  with  utter  self-abnegation 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia."  121 

to  his  cause  shines  independently.  We  shall  see  this  species  of  hero 
in  the  heaven  of  Mars.  The  cause  shines  in  him  and  not  he  in  the 
cause.  He  does  not  use  it  as  a  serai-external  means  of  fame,  but 
he  becomes  the  cause  itself,  and  his  individuality  widens  to  the 
greatness  of  independent  subsistence.  Ambition  conflicts  with 
Divine  Charity  in  the  heaven  of  Mercury.1 

§  30.  The  Heaven  of  Venus.     Love  as  Limited  to  /Special 

Spheres. 

The  Heaven  of  Yenus  is  also  a  heaven  of  imperfect  will.  It  is 
that  of  lovers  and  includes  the  conjugal,  the  parental,  the  filial, 
and  the  fraternal,  as  well  as  the  love  of  friends.  Terrestrial  love 
is  connected  with  a  limitation — devoted  to  a  special  object,  parent, 
child,  husband,  wife,  brother,  sister,  or  friend.  Such  love  is  of 
the  same  nature  fundamentally  as  celestial  love  or  Divine  Charity. 
But  there  is  a  particular  limitation  in  the  former  which  prevents 
its  complete  identity. 


1  Dante  introduces  Justinian  in  Mercury  (Canto  VI)  in  order  to  give  the  history  of 
Rome  and  show  its  providential  place  in  the  world.     It  is  full  of  conflicts  between  am- 
6 


122  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

The  planet  Yenus  is  not  obscured  by  the  sun's  rajs  to  the  same 
extent  as  Mercury.  It  gives  notice  of  the  rising  sun  as  Lucifer, 
and  it  follows  the  setting  sun  as  Hesperus.  It  is  "  brightest  of  all 
the  starry  host,"  but  is  not  independent  of  the  sun.  It  reveals 
and  celebrates  the  sun  rising  or  setting — rthe  friendly  herald  and 
disciple.  It  is  dependent  on  the  sun,  moving  in  an  epicycle  round 
it.  As  represented  in  the  charming  Auroras  of  Guido  and  Guer- 
cirio,  it  looks  back  lovingly  to  the  King  of  Day. 

But  it  is  not  the  love  of  St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  not  the  divine 
charity  displayed  by  the  Poor  in  Spirit,  devoted  to  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  divine  spirit  in  those  who  most  need  it — the  dregs  and 


bition  and  pure  patriotism,  and  suits  well  to  this  heaven  of  Mercury.  Tinder  the 
Empire,  vengeance  was  done  on  Calvary  for  the  ancient  sin  in  the  Garden  of  Eden,  and 
later,  under  Titus,  another  vengeance  was  done  upon  that  vengeance  by  the  destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem.  Providence  having  selected  Rome  as  the  residence  of  the  head  of 
the  Church  "will  not  change  his  scutcheon  for  the  lilies."  France  must  bethink  herself 
of  this.  The  allusion  of  Justinian  to  a  just  vengeance  that  could  be  justly  avenged  gives 
occasion  (Canto  VII)  for  a  discourse  from  Beatrice  on  Incarnation  and  Immortality,  in 
which  Aristotle's  doctrine  of  the  goodness  of  God  ("  without  envy  ")  is  used  after  the 
manner  of  the  Schoolmen  St.  Thomas  and  Hugo  of  St.  Victor.  Divine  condescension 
and  human  freedom  are  dwelt  upon.  Supreme  beneficence  lifts  man  into  the  rank  of 
immortals.  Here  is  the  ground  of  the  human  desire  for  fame,  infinite  aspiration  founded 
on  the  divine  gift  of  immortality,  and  the  divine  election  of  man  to  a  union  with  God. 


Dantds  "Divina  Commedia"  123 

scum  of  humanity.  It  is  not  willing  to  be  crucified  in  order  that 
it  may  save  them. 

The  theory  of  Copernicus,  to  which  we  are  accustomed,  is,  of 
course,  very  different  from  the  astronomy  of  Dante,  and,  we  may 
add,  not  so  well  adapted  for  the  poetic  use  he  makes  of  the  solar 
and  stellar  systems.  Dante  deals  with  the  starry. heavens  as  they 
appear  to  actual  observation.  The  theory  of  Copernicus  exists 
only  for  onr  reason  and  is  not  a  poetic  matter.  According 'to 
Ptolemy,  the  moon  shines  by  reflected  light,  but  not  so  the  planets. 
Their  phases  could  not  be  perceived  without  the  aid  of  a  telescope. 
The  inferior  planets  seemed  to  Dante  to  revolve  primarily  around 
the  sun  and  to  accompany  him  around  the  zodiac,  while  the  su- 
perior planets — Mars,  Jupiter,  and  Saturn — seemed  to  revolve 
around  the  zodiac  independently  like  the  sun  itself. 

Terrestrial  love  moves  in  the  direction  of  the  divine  love  but 
in  channels  with  high  banks,  so  that  it  acts  with  regard  to  a  few 
and  intermits  in  regard  to  many.  It  is  allied  to  selfishness  in  the 
fact  that  it  is  thus  limited  to  those  near  it,  or  connected  by  natu- 
ral ties.  It  is  therefore  imperfect  in  the  manner  symbolized  by 
Dante.  It  possesses,  like  the  planet  Venus,  an  individuality,  but 


124  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

an  individuality  that  is  ancillary — subordinated  to  another.  Ter- 
restrial love  has  so  much  of  the  true  celestial  individuality  that  it 
can  appear  independently  (i.  e.,  shine  by  its  own  light),  but  its 
course  is  back  and  forth  along  the  heavenly  pathway  and  not  al- 
ways progressive. 

§  31.  The  Heaven  of  the  Sun.     Theologians. 

The  fourth  heaven,  or  that  of  the  sun,  forms  the  transition  from 
the  lower  to  the  higher  order  of  heavens. 

It  is  the  heaven  of  theologians.  The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity 
as  taught  by  the  Church  is  the  dogmatic  version  of  the  doctrine  of 
divine  form  laid  down  by  Beatrice  in  the  first  canto.  It  is  the 
doctrine  that  explains  how  an  infinitely  perfect  being  creates  a 
finite,  imperfect  being. 

The  tenth  canto  begins  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit : 

"  Looking  into  his  Son  with  all  the  Love 
Which  each  of  them  eternally  breathes  forth, 
The  primal  and  unutterable  Power 
Whate'er  before  the  mind  or  eye  revolves 


Dante's  "Divina  Corn-media"  125 

With  so  much  order  made,  there  can  he  none 
Who  this  beholds  without  enjoying  it." 

— (L.  Tr.),  x,  1-6. 

Dante's  love  of  theology  has  led  him  to  this  heaven,  and  he  is 
filled  with  gratitude  to  God  for  his  goodness  in  raising  him  to 
this  place. 

In  this  great  family  of  theologians  he  tinds  not  only  Thomas 
Aquinas  and  Albertus  Magnus,  but  also  Dionysius  the  Areopa- 
gite  and  the  mystics,  Richard  of  St.  Victor,  and  St.  JBonaventura. 
In  this  heaven  St.  Thomas  narrates  the  life  of  St.  Francis,  who 
wedded  poverty  or  humility.  Poverty  in  Spirit  had  been  a  widow 
since  the  crucifixion.  Afterward  St.  Bonaventura  recounts  the 
deeds  of  St.  Dominic.  St.  Francis  and  St.  Dominic  are  the  two 
great  reformers  of  Monasticism  in  the  thirteenth  century.  They 
moved  out  to  conquer  the  world,  the  Franciscans  preaching  to  the 
poor  and  lowly,  the  Dominicans  teaching  the  governing  classes  of 
society,  and  cultivating  literature  and  theology.  Each  is  cele- 
brated here  by  the  mouth  of  the  other's  most  eminent  disciple. 

In  the  heaven  of  the  sun  we  hear  from  St.  Thomas  the  wisdom 
of  Solomon — the  doctrine  of  the  Word  and  the  Spirit  and  the  nine 


126  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

subsistences.     All  things  are  but  the  thought  of  God  and  created 
by  him  in  love. 

"  That  which  can  die,  and  that  which  dieth  not, 
Are  nothing  but  the  splendor  of  the  idea 
Which  by  his  love  our  Lord  brings  into  being ; 
Because  that  living  Light,  which  from  its  fount 
Effulgent  flows,  so  that  it  disunites  not 
From  Him  nor  from  the  Love  in  them  intrined, 
Through  its  own  goodness  reunites  its  rays 
In  nine  subsistences,  as  in  a  mirror, 
Itself  eternally  remaining  One. 
Thence  it  descends  to  the  last  potencies, 
Downward  from  act  to  act  becoming  such 
That  only  brief  contingencies  it  makes ; 
And  these  contingencies  I  hold  to  be 
Things  generated,  which  the  heaven  produces 
By  its  own  motion,  with  seed  and  without. 
Neither  their  wax,  nor  that  which  tempers  it, 
Remains  immutable,  and  hence  beneath 
The  ideal  signet  more  and  less  shines  through; 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  127 

Therefore  it  happens  that  the  self-same  tree 
After  its  kind  bears  worse  and  better  fruit, 
And  ye  are  born  with  characters  diverse. 
If  in  perfection  tempered  were  the  wax, 
And  were  the  heaven  in  its  supremest  virtue, 
The  brilliance  of  the  seal  would  all  appear ; 
But  nature  gives  it  evermore  deficient, 
In  the  like  manner  working  as  the  artist, 
Who  has  the  skill  of  art  and  hand  that  trembles. 
If  then  the  fervent  Love,  the  Vision  clear, 
Of  primal  Virtue  do  dispose  and  seal, 
Perfection  absolute  is  there  acquired." 

— (L.  Tr.),  xiii,  52-81. 

Herein  we  have  a  new  statement  of  the  Form  which  makes  the 
universe  resemble  God.  It  is  an  account  of  the  rise  of  finite,  im- 
perfect beings.  In  God,  says  St.  Thomas,  knowing  and  willing 
are  one,  so  that  his  consciousness  of  himself — his  knowing  of 
himself  on  the  part  of  "  Primal  Virtue " — creates  another,  the 
"  Vision  Clear."  From  these  two  proceed  the  Third  Person,  the 
"  Fervent  Love."  The  Trinity  was  denied  by  Sabellius,  and  on 


128  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

leaving  this  heaven  of  divine  theology  it  is  fitting  that  we  have 
the  great  heresiarchs  condemned  bj  the  mouth  of  St.  Thomas. 
But  a  caution  is  added : 

"  Nor  yet  shall  people  be  too  confident 

In  judging,  even  as  he  is  who  doth  count 

The  corn  in  field  or  ever  it  be  ripe. 

For  I  have  seen  all  winter  long  the  thorn 

First  show  itself  intractable  and  fierce, 

And  after  bear  the  rose  upon  its  top ; 

And  I  have  seen  a  ship  direct  and  swift 

Run  o'er  the  sea  throughout  its  course  entire 

To  perish  at  the  harbor's  mouth  at  last. 

Let  not  Dame  Bertha  nor  Ser  Martin  think, 
Seeing  one  steal,  another  offering  make, 
To  see  them  in  .the  arbitrament  divine ; 
For  one  may  rise,  and  fall  the  other  may." 

§  32.  The  Heaven  of  Mars.     True  Heroes. 
In  the  fifth  heaven  are  found  the  great  Christian  heroes  and 
martyrs  who  have  risked  their  lives  from  zeal  for  the  true  faith. 


Dante's  " Divina  Commedia"  129 

These  are  arranged  in  the  form  of  a  cross  stretched  athwart  the 
sky,  on  which  Christ  is  flashing,  symbolic  of  the  spirit  of  self-sacri- 
fice which  is  dominant  in  the  character  of  these  martial  saints. 
These  are  not  those  heroes  who  were  obscured  by  love  of  fame 
like  the  Mercurial  saints,  but  the  firm  in  will  and  deep  in  faith. 
Here  Dante  listens  to  the  long  discourse  from  Cacciaguida  con- 
cerning the  good  old  times  in  Florence  (Canto  xv-xviii).  In  this 
heaven  of  the  true  spirit  of  patriotism  and  heroic  self-sacrifice  for 
principle  the  poet  naturally  recurs  to  the  subject  nearest  his  heart, 
and  through  the  mouth  of  his  ancestor  he  describes  the  old  order 
and  the  genesis  of  the  new.  The  remedy  for  the  evils  of  Italy  in 
a  firmly  seated  imperial  power  is  prophetically  indicated.  Thus 
Dante  comes  again  to  the  burning  question  ("  Convito,"  fourth 
Treatise)  at  every  possible  opportunity.  The  subject  is  continued 
in  the  next  heaven,  to  which  we  now  arrive. 

§  33.  The  Heaven  of  Jupiter.     Righteous  Kings. 

In  the  sixth  heaven,  that  of  Jupiter,  we  find  the  righteous 
kings  arranged  in  the  form  of  an  enormous  Eagle — symbol  of  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire. 


130  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

As  we  rise  from  heaven  to  heaven  in  the  Paradise  we  reach 
a  more  adequate  state  of  devotion  of  the  individual  to  the  welfare 
of  the  social  whole.  Each  one  unites  with  his  fellows  to  produce 
an  aggregate  social  result.  This  is  symbolized  by  the  formation 
of  great  figures  out  of  saints  arranged  as  in  Mars,  so  as  to  present 
a  colossal  cross,  or  in  Jupiter,  so  as  to  spell  out  the  words  that  ex- 
press ethical  principles,  or  to  present  a  great  Eagle,  or,  in  the 
tenth  heaven,  the  Rose  of  Paradise.  This  paradise  is  the  state 
of  those  whose  deeds  re-enforce  society. 

§  34.  The  Doctrine  of  Salvation. 

The  Eagle  discourses  of  salvation  by  faith  and  touches  on  the 
important  question  of  the  salvation  of  the  heathen : 

"  For  saidst  thou :  '  Born  a  man  is  on  the  shore 
Of  Indus,  and  is  none  who  there  can  speak 
Of  Christ,  nor  who  can  read,  nor  who  can  write ; 
And  all  his  inclinations  and  his  actions 
Are  good,  so  far  as  human  reason  sees, 
Without  a  sin  in  life  or  in  discourse  : 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  131 

He  dieth  unbaptized  and  without  faith  ? 
Where  is  this  justice  that  conderaneth  him? 
Where  is  his  fault,  if  he  do  not  believe  ? ' 
Now  who  art  thou,  that  on  the  bench  wouldst  sit 
In  judgment  at  a  thousand  miles  away, 
With  the  short  vision  of  a  single  span  ? " 

— (L.  Tr.),  xix,  70-81. 

This,  of  course,  shuts  out  the  exercise  of  human  reason.  While 
it  is  true  that  our  failure  to  comprehend  the  total  system  renders 
it  impossible  for  us  to  condemn  divine  justice,  in  a  single  instance, 
yet,  on  the  other  hand,  we  are  called  upon  to  understand  as  far  as 
possible  the  purposes  of  Providence  and  to  see  their  supreme 
reasonableness.  This  we  may  do  in  given  instances,  and  probably 
in  all,  if  we  ponder  the  subject  sufficiently.  Only  our  negative 
judgments  are  insufficient;  where  the  divine  decree  seems  irra- 
tional there  we  may  be  sure  that  we  do  not  comprehend  the  case. 
If  we  are  sure  of  the  existence  of  the  decree  as  a  fact  we  are  sure 
of  its  rationality  on  the  same  ground  that  Dante's  philosophy 
assures  him  of  the  existence  of  God.  Form  and  order — the  de- 
pendence of  all  things  in  space  and  time — unite  every  thing  to 


132  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

every  other ;  it  is  the  universal  relativity  of  which  we  hear  so 
much  in  natural  philosophy.  This  interdependence  proves  the 
unity  of  the  whole ;  and  accordingly  the  whole  in  all  its  changes, 
in  all  its  beginnings  and  its  ceasings,  manifests  one  sole  energy — 
an  energy  of  self-determination  whose  form  is  Reason — No^o-t? 
1/0770-66)5,  as  Aristotle  calls  it.  Since  the  Absolute  is  self-related 
and  can  only  be  self-related,  from  its  very  nature  its  self-know- 
ing will  result  in  other  creatures.  Because  that  divine  knowing 
in  making  itself  an  object,  generates  another  like  itself — the  eter- 
nal Word  as  the  eternal  thought  of  the  eternal  Reason.  This 
is  the  doctrine  of  the  Logos,  and  was  understood  by  Plato  and 
Aristotle,  though  not  stated  by  the  latter  in  the  same  terms  as  by 
Plato.  It  was  seen  clearly  by  these  two  philosophers  that  the  ne- 
cessary dependence  (ordo)  of  things  in  space  implies  or  presup- 
poses an  Absolute,  that  the  relative  presupposes  an  independent, 
self-related  Absolute.  It  was  seen,  in  the  second  place,  that  the 
Absolute  has  necessarily  the  form  of  self-activity  or  self-determi- 
nation, and  that  self-activity  in  its  perfect  form  is  Reason,  subject 
and  object  in  one.  Following  this  a  third  step,  they  saw  that  such 
an  absolute  Reason  is  perfect  goodness  or  without  envy  (see  Canto 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  133 

vii,  "  La  divina  bonta,  che  da  se  sperne  ogni  livore"),1  and  this  is 
explicitly   stated    by   both    philosophers   ("  Timaeus,"   29,    and 


1  Livore,  used  in  this  passage  (vii,  65),  also  used  in  "  Purg.,"  xiv,  84,  names  envy  by 
its  livid  hue.  Without  doubt  this  word  is  suggested  to  Dante  by  Boethius,  who  indeed 
suggests  also  this  whole  passage  in  regard  to  the  divine  goodness.  In  "  The  Consola- 
tion of  Philosophy,"  Metrum  ix  of  the  third  book,  he  speaks  of  "  the  form  of  the  su- 
preme goodness,  devoid  of  envy,  not  impelled  to  create  by  external  causes  "  (uerum 
insita  summi  forma  boni  livore  carens).  To  Boethius  is  due  also  the  form  of  the  "  Vita 
Nuova,"  and  especially  that  of  the  "  Convito."  For  Boethius  puts  in  verse  the  sub- 
stance of  a  prose  discourse  in  each  chapter.  Dante  makes  his  prose  discourse  a  com- 
mentary on  the  verse,  while  Boethius  makes  the  latter  a  summary.  In  the  old  trans- 
lation of  Boethius  "  by  the  Right  Honorable  Richard  Lord  Viscount  Preston  "  (London, 
1695)  is  the  following  rendering  of  the  first  portion  of  Metrum  ix: 
"  0  thou  who  with  perpetual  Reason  rul'st 

The  World,  great  Maker  of  the  Heaven  and  Earth ! 

Who  dost  from  ages  make  swift  Time  proceed, 

And  fix'd  thyself,  mak'st  all  things  else  to  move ! 

Whom  exterior  Causes  did  not  force  to  frame 

This  Work  of  floating  Matter,  but  the  Form 

Of  Sovereign  Good,  above  black  Envy  plac'd, 

Within  thy  Breast ;  thou  everything  dost  draw 

From  the  supreme  Example ;  fairest  thyself, 

Bearing  the  World's  Figure  in  thy  Mind, 

Thou  formedst  this  after  that  Prototype,"  etc. 

When  we  go  back  to  Dante  and  to  the  Christian  writers  of  earlier  ages  we  find  their 
statements  taking  on  the  technical  terms  in  which  this  great  doctrine  of  divine  Good- 
ness was  stated  by  the  philosophy  of  Plato  and  Aristotle.  The  creed  had  not  at  that 


134:  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

"  Metaph.,"  Book  i,  ch.  ii).  In  other  words,  this  is  the  doctrine 
that  Creation  proceeds  from  God's  grace.  He  desires  to  share  his 
life  with  other  beings  without  number  ("  Convito,"  second  Treat- 
ise, ch.  v,  "  He  has  made  spiritual  creatures  innumerable"). 

The  doctrine  of  the  Logos  includes  a  further  thought,  and  from 
this  is  derived  the  idea  of  creation  and  the  procession  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  If  Divine  Reason,  in  thinking  itself  as  object  causes  that 
object  to  exist  as  its  perfect  other — an  eternally  and  only  begot- 
ten— it  follows  that  the  only  begotten  Logos  is  a  perfect  reason 
(vorja-is  voqa-ecos}  who  also  causes  his  own  object  to  exist  independ- 
ently. The  Logos  in  knowing  himself  has  to  know  himself  as  in- 
dependent and  perfect,  and  also  to  know  himself  as  begotten,  as 
derived  from  the  First  Reason  (not  as  being  derived,  but  as  one 
who  has  completed  his  derivation  and  become  perfect).  His 
knowledge  of  his  perfection  makes  for  its  object  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  his  knowledge  of  his  derivation  creates  a  world  of  derivation  or 


time  become  a  mere  formula  of  words  confessed  to  have  no  meaning  that  can  be  com- 
prehended, but  it  was  a  "  symbolum  "  or  statement  of  the  highest  insight  attained  by 
the  contemplative  souls  within  the  Church  ("  Symbolum  est  professio  fidei,"  T.  Aq. 
"Summa  Theolog.,"  2,  2,  Article  ix). 


Daniels  "Divina  Commedia"  135 

evolution  containing  all  stages  in  it  of  growth  and  development, 
from  chaos  or  unformed  matter  below  up  to  the  highest  saint  or 
angel  above.  Space  and  time  are  the  forms  of  all  finite  existence ; 
they  condition  matter.  The  universe  in  time  and  space  is  the  Pro- 
cessio  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Nature  is  the  process  of  creating  con- 
scious, rational  souls  who — being  arrived  at  the  doctrine  of  Chris- 
tianity, "  the  good  of  the  Intellect "  (Aristotle),  the  doctrine  of 
God  as  pure  grace — set  up  charity  as  the  highest  principle  and 
form  an  Invisible  Church  which  is  the  "  Rose  of  Paradise  " — in- 
numerable souls  united  through  brotherly  helpfulness,  so  that 
each  prefers  the  welfare  of  all  others  to  his  own,  and  by  such  al- 
truism becomes  the  recipient  of  the  providential  care  of  all.  Such 
an  Invisible  Church,  including  all  rational  beings  in  all  the  worlds 
in  space,  and  especially  the  infinitely  numerous  spirits  that  have 
passed  through  death  to  immortality,  is  celebrated  in  the  Apoca- 
lypse as  the  "  Bride."  This  Invisible  Church  has  one  spirit,  be- 
cause mutual  interdependence  makes  unity — it  is  an  institutional 
Spirit— The  Holy  Spirit. 

The  form  of  this  statement  is  different  from  that  of  Dante  and 
St.  Thomas  and  from  that  of  the  mystics,  but  is  substantially  their 


136  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

view.  If  one  will  take  this  view  in  its  history,  beginning  with 
Plato  and  Aristotle  and  following  it  down  to  Philo  and  Alexan- 
drian mysticism  ;  beginning  again  with  the  New  Testament  state- 
ments of  it  by  St.  John  in  his  Gospel  and  by  St.  Paul  in  Colossians 
(i,  13-20),  trace  its  growth  in  the  creeds  through  the  conflict  with 
Arianism,  and  finally  through  the  conflict  of  the  Greek  and  Roman 
churches — he  will  find  this  statement  a  clew  to  the  entire  move- 
ment and  the  mysterious  principle  that  guided  the  church  fathers 
in  defining  their  symbola  as  well  as  in  building  up  their  systems 
of  theology.  Interpreted  by  this,  one  may  see  the  general  ethical 
significance  of  the  expression  "  faith  in  Christ,"  as  a  faith  in  the 
doctrine  of  grace  and  the  recognition  of  Divine  charity  as  the  high- 
est principle. 

"  It  recommenced  :  '  Unto  this  kingdom  never 
Ascended  one  who  had  not  faith  in  Christ, 
Before  or  since  he  to  the  tree  was  nailed. 
But  look  thou,  many  crying  are,  "  Christ,  Christ !  " 
Who  at  the  judgment  shall  be  far  less  near 
To  him  than  some  shall  be  who  knew  not  Christ.' " 

—  (L.  Tr.),  xix,  103-108. 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  137 

Interpreting  this  by  the  doctrine  of  the  Logos  as  above  stated, 
all  beings  in  the  world,  conscious  and  unconscious,  are  created  by 
the  act  of  the  Logos.  He  recognizes  his  derivation  ;  whatever  he 
knows  as  object  He  causes  to  exist  as  object.  Man  may  think 
a  thought  without  causing  it  to  exist;  his  will  is  different  from 
his  knowing;  this  constitutes  man's  finitude;  but  in  God  will 
and  intellect  are  one  ("  In  Deo  sit  idem  voluntas  et  intellectus," 
St.  T.  Aquinas, "  Summa  Theol.,"  I,  q.  xxvii,  art.  3  ;  see  also  "  Con- 
tra Gentiles,"  lib.  iv,  cap.  19).  Hence,  whatever  God  knows  de- 
rives existence,  and  whatever  finitude  exists,  exists  in  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  Logos.  Individual  existence  is,  therefore,  derived  from 
grace  which  gives  separate  subsistence  to  that  which  is  finite  and 
imperfect.  But  such  imperfect  or  finite  exists  only  in  a  state  of 
change  and  genesis,  for  it  is  the  thought  of  His  own  genesis  that 
causes  the  finite  to  exist — it  exists  only  in  a  state  of  becoming 
or  evolution.  Hence,  it  is  said  in  theology  that  all  improve- 
ment and  growth  in  intellect  and  morality  is  a  work  of  grace. 
Hence,  too,  it  is  said  that  Christ  bears  the  sins  of  man ;  he  thinks 
all  their  imperfections  and  does  not  annihilate  them  because  of 
imperfection.  He  is  the  Mediator  with  the  First  Person  because 


138  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

the  First  thinks  perfection  and  generates  a  Perfect  Logos.  To 
think  imperfection,  God  must  find  it  in  some  way  involved  with 
His  Being.  The  Logos,  inasmuch  as  there  is  derivation  or  gen- 
eration logically  implied  in  His  being,  necessarily  thinks  imper- 
fection, but  only  as  a  preface  and  procession  toward  perfection. 
He  is  perfection,  and  no  imperfection  remains  in  the  Logos ;  but 
there  is  a  logical  implication  that  there  was  such  imperfection  in 
the  fact  that  he  was  begotten  or  derived  from  the  First.  This  log- 
ical derivation  necessary  to  the  thought  of  His  relation  to  the 
First  becomes  a  real  derivation  in  time  and  space.  But  the 
thought  of  finitude  and  imperfection  must  be  looked  upon  as  re- 
pugnant to  the  mind  of  the  Logos,  and  to  be  endured  only  in  view 
of  what  proceeds  from  it.  In  religious  symbolism  He  is  spoken 
of  as  redeeming  finite  beings  through  his  incarnation  and  death 
on  the  Cross.  This  expresses  symbolically  the  act  of  the  Logos  in 
Creation.  For  the  sake  of  reconciliation  or  atonement,  and  the 
existence  of  the  invisible  Church  of  believers  in  divine  charity, 
God  creates  matter  and  lower  forms  of  being,  and  educes,  from 
these,  higher  and  higher  forms  of  self-activity  and  freedom,  culmi- 
nating in  immortal  souls  who  may  freely  unite  in  institutions. 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia."  139 

Institutions  enable  each  member  to  reap  the  united  result  of  the 
whole.  Philosophy  must  certainly  agree  with  religion  in  this: 
that  the  existence  of  matter  and  lower  forms  of  life — not  only 
these,  but  the  higher  and  highest  forms  of  life  and  finite  spirit — are 
evidences  of  benevolent  goodness  (grace)  in  the  First  Principle. 
Nature  seems  even  to  the  scientist  (illuminated  by  the  thought  of 
Darwin)  to  be  a  vast  process  of  developing  individuality.  For 
the  fittest  survives,  and  the  fittest  is  the  most  able  to  conquer  by 
ideas.  All  matter  struggles  to  assume  the  form  of  man,  or,  » 

"  Striving  to  be  man,  the  worm 
Mounts  through  all  the  spires  of  form." 

Souls  may  exist  without  this  doctrine,  but  they  are  not  in  the 
Paradise  and  the  Holy  Spirit  does  not  dwell  in  them.  But  they 
are  subject  to  conversion  by  the  spirits  who  have  found  the  truth. 

The  voice  of  the  spirit  choir,  seeming  to  proceed  from  the  beak 
of  the  Eagle,  continues  its  discourse,  and  Dante  is  informed  that 
the  supreme  saints  forming  the  eye  are  the  supreme  saints  of  this 
heaven,  David  the  psalmist  being  its  very  pupil. 

"  Of  the  five  who  make  me  a  circle  for  eyelid,  he  who  is  closest 


140  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

beside  my  beak  consoled  the  poor  widow  for  her  son.  Now 
knows  he  how  dear  it  costs  not  to  follow  Christ  by  the  experi- 
ence of  this  sweet  life  and  of  the  opposite." — (A.  J.  B.,  Tr.),  xx, 
43-48. 

This  was  the  Emperor  Trajan,  the  story  of  whose  justice  so  in- 
terested St.  Gregory  that  he  interceded  with  prayers  for  his  soul, 
and  having  his  bones  disinterred,  baptized  him  and  thus  brought 
him  into  Paradise.  This  shows  the  power  of  the  Church  over  the 
souls  in  the  Limbo.  But  Dante  carries  it  a  step  further  by  saving 
on  his  own  authority  the  soul  of  Rhipeus,  whom  Yirgil  (^Eneid 
ii,  426)  has  called  the  justest  of  all  that  were  in  Troy.  Dante 
makes  him  one  of  the  five  supreme  spirits  in  the  eye  of  the 
Eagle. 

"  Who  would  believe  down  in  the  erring  world  that  Rhipeus  of 
Troy  should  be  in  this  round  the  fifth  of  the  holy  lights  ?  Now 
knows  he  enough  of  that  which  the  world  cannot  see  of  the  divine 
grace,  albeit  his  view  discerns  not  the  depth.  Like  a  lark  which 
goes  abroad  in  air,  singing  first,  and  then  holds  her  peace,  con- 
tent with  the  last  sweetness  which  sates  her,  such  seemed  to  me 
the  image  of  the  imprint  of  the  eternal  pleasure,  according  to  its 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia."  141 

desire  for  which  each  thing  becomes  of  what  sort  it  is.  And 
albeit  in  that  place  I  was  in  regard  to  ray  doubting  as  glass  to 
the  color  which  covers  it,  it  did  not  suffer  me  to  wait  a  while  in 
silence,  but  with  the  force  of  its  weight  it  urged  from  my  mouth, 
*  What  things  are  these  ? '  Wherefore  of  sparkling  I  beheld  a  great 
festival.  Thereafter,  with  its  eye  more  kindled,  the  blessed  en- 
sign responded  to  me,  not  to  keep  me  in  suspense  wondering  :  '  I 
see  that  thou  believest  these  things  because  I  say  them,  but  seest 
not  how  ;  so  that  if  they  are  believed,  they  are  concealed.  Thou 
dost  as  he  who  well  apprehends  the  thing  by  name,  but  its  quid- 
dity he  cannot  see,  if  another  sets  it  not  forth.  Regnum  ccelorum 
suffereth  violence  of  warm  love  and  of  lively  hope,  which  over- 
comes the  divine  will,  not  in  such  wise  as  man  has  the  mastery 
over  man,  but  overcomes  it,  because  it  wills  to  be  overcome,  and 
being  overcome,  overcomes  with  its  own  goodness.  The  first  life 
in  the  eyelid  and  the  fifth  make  thee  marvel  because  with  them 
thou  seest  the  angels'  domain  adorned.' '  — (A.  J.  B.,  Tr.),  xx, 
6T-102. 

The  principle  of  grace  in  the  Christian  religion  contains  infinite 
depths  yet  to  be  revealed  in  creeds  and  practice.     The  adjustment 


142  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

of  the  principle  of  grace  to  the  principle  of  justice  has  furnished 
the  most  difficult  of  theological  problems.  It  is  the  old  question 
of  Orientalism  as  against  Occidentalism — Asia  versus  Europe. 
The  Eagle  says  that  "  Rhipeus  placed  all  his  love  below  upon 
righteousness,  being  led  by  grace  that  distills  from  a  Fountain  so 
deep  that  never  creature  has  been  able  to  see  its  first  wave ;  from 
grace  to  grace  God  opened  his  eye  to  our  future  redemption." 
Then,  with  this  example  of  salvation,  he  concludes  with  a  warn- 
ing against  the  sin  of  limiting  in  thought  God's  grace : 

"  0  thou  predestination,  how  remote 
Thy  root  is  from  the  aspect  of  all  those 
Who  the  First  Cause  do  not  behold  entire  ! 
And  you,  O  mortals !  hold  yourselves  restrained 
In  judging  ;  for  ourselves,  who  look  on  God, 
We  do  not  know  as  yet  all  the  elect." 

— (L.  Tr.),  xx,  130-135. 

§  35.  The  Heaven  of  Saturn. 

The  seventh  heaven,  that  of  Saturn,  is  the  special  place  for  the 
contemplative  spirits — the  highest  mystics.    But  while  we  find  St. 


Dantds  "Divina  Commedia"  143 

Bonaventura  and  Dionysius  in  the  heaven  of  the  sun  with  Albert 
and  St.  Thomas,  here  are  found  only  St.  Peter  Damiano  and  St. 
Benedict — and  the  former  does  not  speak  of  highest  and  subtlest 
doctrines,  but  only  inveighs  against  the  luxury  of  modern  prelates, 
while  the  latter  complains  of  the  corruption  of  the  monks. 

§  36.  The  Heaven  of  the  Fixed  Stars. 

The  eighth  heaven  is  that  of  the  fixed  stars  to  which  Dante 
follows  Beatrice,  beholding  the  solar  system  at  such  a  distance 
that  the  planets  seemed  to  form  a  small  cluster  of  stars.  Here  he 
beholds  the  Triumph  of  Christ. 

Dante  is  now  examined  by  St.  Peter  on  the  subject  of  Faith 
(xxiv),  by  St.  James  on  that  of  Hope  (xxv),  and  by  St.  John  on 
that  of  Charity  (xxvi). 

One  looks  for  a  mystical  interpretation  for  these  three  celestial 
virtues  from  Dante  in  this  place,  or  at  least  for  hints  of  such  an 
interpretation.  "What  he  finds  at  first  is  the  ordinary  definitions 
taken  in  the  ordinary  sense.  "  Faith  is  the  substance  of  things 
hoped  for  and  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen."  In  what  sense 


144  The  Spiritual  Sense  -of 

can  there  be  a  substance  (trrocrrcwn?,  or  hypostasis)  of  things  hoped 
for? 

Faith  is  not  contrasted  with  knowledge  of  the  higher  order,  but 
only  with  knowledge  attained  by  experience.  Faith  is  a  higher 
order  of  knowledge — a  knowledge  founded  on  insight  into  what  is 
necessarily  and  eternally  true.  We  know  phenomena  by  sense- 
perception,  but  we  know  noumena  through  insight  into  the  pre- 
suppositions of  things  that  appear  to  our  senses.  "We  perceive 
things  and  events  by  our  senses,  but  we  perceive  time  and  space 
by  reflection.  Things  and  events  may  or  may  not  be,  but  time  and 
space  must  be,  and  cannot  be  thought  away.  We  may  be  said  to 
know  time  and  space  by  faith  in  this  technical  sense.  Faith  is 
not  mere  belief  founded  on  probabilities,  or  on  hearsay,  though 
it  is  often  taken  in  that  sense.  Probable  knowledge  does  not  go 
for  BO  much  as  this  true  faith.  Faith  in  mere  hearsay  relates  to 
things  of  sense  whose  existence  is  not  necessary  but  contingent. 
They  exist  at  one  time  and  cease  to  exist  at  another — to-day  the 
lily  of  the  field  is,  but  to-morrow  it  is  withered  and  gone.  But 
the  logical  conditions  of  existence  do  not  pass  away,  nor  are  they 
to  be  perceived  or  known  by  sense-perception. 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  145 

But  Christian  faith  is  something  else  than  mere  insight  into 
what  is  logically  permanent.  It  is  insight  into  the  principle  of 
grace  as  the  source  of  all  things,  of  time  and  space,  as  well  as 
things  and  events.  The  Trinity  is  the  supreme  object  of  faith,  and 
it  is  the  object  of  highest  knowledge  and  subtlest  insight.  Faith 
is  the  substance  of  things  hoped  for,  inasmuch  as  it  explains  how 
human  life  is  a  part  of  an  eternal  life,  a  part  of  the  Procession  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  a  career  which  begins  here  and  ends  no  more 
through  all  the  future.  All  things  hoped  for  or  worthy  of  being 
hoped  for  have,  therefore,  their  substance  and  ground  in  this  doc- 
trine, as  the  deepest  insight  attained  by  the  human  mind.  Faith 
is  "  evidence  of  things  not  seen "  (eXey^o?,  or  "  evidence,"  is 
proof  or  conviction)  in  the  general  sense  of  all  a  priori  knowledge. 
All  non-sensuous  knowledge  is  of  this  order.  It  is  not  less  probable 
but  more  probable  than  sense-knowledge.  Sense-knowledge  tells 
us  that  this  or  that  object  undergoes  a  change  ;  insight  tells  us  that 
if  it  undergoes  a  change  there  is  a  cause  for  it :  and  this  is  not  a 
probability  but  a  certainty.  The  observation  of  the  change  may 
have  been  a  mistake,  but  the  insight  cannot  be.  Sense-perception 

looks  for  the  cause  of  the  change,  say  of  the  movement  of  a  piece 

7 


146  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

of  matter,  and  finds  it  perhaps  in  an  animal,  perhaps  in  another 
body.  But  insight  knows  that  a  real  efficient  cause  must  be  found 
in  a  self-activity,  in  a  living  being,  plant,  animal,  or  man,  or  in 
God.  Sense-perception  may  be  mistaken  in  identifying  any  being 
as  cause ;  but  insight,  or  faith  in  this  high  sense  of  "  the  evidence 
of  things  not  seen  "  cannot  be  mistaken  as  to  the  fact  of  the  exist- 
ence of  a  cause  of  this  change  and  of  any  change.  Moreover, 
although  we  may  speak  truly  of  plant,  animal,  or  man  as  a  cause, 
yet  the  causal  energy  is  invisible  and  cannot  be  a  matter  of  sense- 
perception,  which  is  limited  to  effects.  It  sees  limbs  move,  but  not 
the  force  that  moves  them.  Faith  in  this  sense  is,  as  St.  Peter 
observes,  correctly  placed  among  the  substances,  and  also  among 
the  proofs  (tra  gli  argomenti).  "  Faith  is  that  capacity  of  mind  " 
— St.  Thomas  quotes  this  definition  (ii,  2,  qu.  4,  art.  1) — "  wherein 
eternal  life  begins  in  us,  making  our  intellect  assured  of  invisi- 
ble beings." 

The  greatest  of  all  miracles  in  the  world  is  its  adoption  of  Chris- 
tianity, says  Dante ;  for  that  poverty  and  the  doctrine  of  other- 
worldliness  should  turn  aside  people  enjoying  this  world  seems 
impossible.  But  Christianity  is  not  so  ascetic  as  Buddhism  or 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  147 

Brahminism,  which  hold  more  devotees  to-daj  than  Christianity. 
But  miracle  in  religion  has  this  deep  sense  as  foundation  of  faith  : 
All  manifestation  of  force  is  ultimately  the  manifestation  of  self- 
activity.  Self-activity  is  the  opposite  of  mechanism  and  mechani- 
cal links  in  a  chain  of  causation.  The  religious  mind  does  not 
pause  for  a  moment  on  the  mechanical  nexus,  but  flies  at  once  to 
the  efficient  cause — a  self-activity. 

Dante  repeats  his  " credo"  but  carries  it  only  through  the  por- 
.tion  that  relates  to  one  eternal  God  in  three  eternal  Persons,  dis- 
tinct as  persons  but  one  in  essence,  so  that  of  them  is  and  are  may 
both  be  predicated. 

"  Hope  is  a  sure  expectation  of  the  future  glory  which  is  the 
effect  produced  by  divine  grace,  and  preceding  merit"  is  Dante's 
reply '  to  the  holy  catechist.  It  is  not  hope  in  the  ordinary  sense, 
but  hope  based  on  the  faith  or  insight  into  the  constitution  of  the 
universe — a  faith  based  on  the  knowledge  of  God  and  the  Final 
Cause  of  His  Creation.  It  is  thus,  as  St.  Thomas  explains  it,  "  a 
sure  expectation  of  future  glory."  It  is  to  the  will  what  faith  is 


1  Quoted  from  Peter  the  Lombard,  as  Philalethes  shows. 


14:8  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

to  the  intellect  (St.  T.  Aq.,  "  Sumraa  Theol.,"  ii,  2,  qu.  18).  With 
the  inequalities  of  insight  and  the  vicissitudes  of  life,  Hope  sup- 
ports the  soul  during  its  nights  and  eclipses,  giving  steadfastness  to 
the  will. 

The  approach  of  St.  John  temporarily  eclipses  Beatrice  by  ex- 
cess of  light.  To  his  catechist  Dante  defines  the  object  of  love 
as  God,  and  affirms  that  lie  has  learned  this  through  Philosophy 
(Plato  and  Aristotle  teaching  him  that  the  divine  is  without  envy), 
and  also  from  revelation.  Love  is  the  foundation  of  all  Being. 
One  may  have  faith  (insight)  or  hope,  and  yet  not  admit  the  divine 
principle  into  his  heart.  But  with  divine  charity  he  becomes 
filled  with  it  and  is  it. 

Dante  now  is  permitted  to  see  Adam  the  archetypal  man,  for 
he  has  fulfilled  the  course  of  human  education,  having  passed  his 
examination  in  this  heaven  of  Saturn,  highest  of  the  planets  or 
varying  stars.  -f  '•-  '• 

St.  Peter,  however  (as  a  sort  of  favor  to  Dante  ?),  takes  occasion 
to  administer  a  violent  rebuke  to  certain  of  his  successors  in  the 
papal  chair. 


Dantds  "Divina  Commedia."  149 

§  36.   The  Heaven  of  the  Fixed  Stars. 

Dante  and  Beatrice  now  leave  the  solar  system  and  ascend  to 
the  heaven  of  the  fixed  stars — the  primum  mobile,  or  first  moved  ; 
for  motion  is  communicated  to  all  the  lower  heavens  by  this 
heaven  which  is  the  crystalline  sphere.  The  unmoved  heaven, 
the  tenth,  is  the  Empyrean.  Spiritual  perfection  (eWeXe^eia)  is 
all  in  all,  and  everywhere  perfect.  But  that  which  is  in  space 
and  time  is  sundered,  so  that  it  is  not  everywhere  self-identical. 
But  the  imperfect  desires  to  be  perfect.  It  is  part  real  and  part 
potential ;  hence  it  moves  in  order  to  realize  its  potentialities. 
Hence  change  in  the  world  is  caused  by  desire  on  the  part  of  that 
which  is  imperfect  to  realize  all  its  potentialities  and  become  per- 
fect. This  is  Aristotle's  theory  of  the  movements  and  changes  in 
the  world,  and  especially  of  the  stars.  If  each  point  in  space 
could  be  all  points  at  once,  it  would  reach  perfection.  This  it 
attempts  to  do  through  movement.  (This  thought  of  Aristotle  and 
also  of  Plato — at  first  seemingly  whimsical — will  bear  the  closest 
examination.  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  Hegel  adopts  it  in  his 
"  Naturphilosophie  ").  The  primum  mobile,  or  crystalline  sphere, 


150  Tlie  Spiritual  Sense  of 

"  desires  "  to  touch  the  Empyrean  in  each  and  every  part  at  once 
with  all  its  own  parts,  and  thus  have  perfect  contact.  Hence  it 
moves  with  inconceivable  swiftness,  so  that  this  contact  shall  occur 
with  the  least  possible  intervals  of  delay. 

The  Empyrean  is  all-living  flame  (symbol  of  pure  self-activ- 
ity). It  is  everywhere  total  and  complete — just  as  the  soul  is 
everywhere  present  in  the  body  in  the  act  of  feeling.  "  And 
this  is  why,"  says  Dante  in  the  "  Convito  "  (second  Treatise,  chap. 
iv,  E.  P.  Sayer's  translation)  "  that  first  moved — the  Primum  Mo- 
bile— has  such  extremely  rapid  motion  ;  for,  because  of  the  most 
fervent  appetite  which  each  part  of  it  has  to  be  united  with  each 
part  of  that  most  divine  heaven  of  peace,  in  which  it  revolves 
with  so  much  desire,  its  velocity  is  almost  incomprehensible." 

Dante  learns  here  of  the  nine  hierarchies.  Beatrice  discourses 
also  of  the  creation  of  the  angels  and  of  the  fall  of  Lucifer : 

"Jerome  has  written  unto  you  of  angels 
Created  a  long  lapse  of  centuries 
Or  ever  yet  the  other  world  was  made  ; 
But  written  is  this  truth  in  many  places 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  151 

By  writers  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  thou 
Shalt  see  it,  if  thou  lookest  well  thereat 
And  even  reason  seeth  it  somewhat, 
For  it  would  not  concede  that  for  so  long 
Could  be  the  motors  without  their  perfection." 

— (L.  Tr.),  xxix,  37-45. 

The  higher  has  its  perfection  in  giving  help  and  guidance  to 
the  lower,  and  hence  is  not  without  the  lower. 

"  Nor  could  one  reach,  in  counting,  unto  twenty 
So  swiftly,  as  a  portion  of  these  angels 
Disturbed  the  subject  of  your  elements. 
The  rest  remained,  and  they  began  this  art 
Which  thou  discernest,  with  so  great  delight 
That  never  from  their  circling  do  they  cease. 
The  occasion  of  the  fall  was  the  accursed 
Presumption  of  that  One  whom  thou  hast  seen 
By  all  the  burden  of  the  world  constrained." 

— (L.  Tr.),  xxix,  49-57. 

In  describing  the  angels  the  subject  of  angelic  knowing  (treated 
of   elsewhere  in  this  essay)  is  touched  upon  (xxix,  79).     "  They 


152  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

behold  €rod's  face  direct,  and  therefore  naught  is  hidden  from 
them."  For  they  look  into  universals  and  behold  in  the  efficient 
and  final  causes  the  entire  compass  of  effects.  "  Their  vision  is 
not  interrupted  by  new  objects,  and  hence  they  have  no  need  to 
remember  through  partial  concepts."  They  do  not  know  by 
objects  which,  though  real,  yet  are  defective  in  that  they  do  not 
exhibit  all  the  possibilities  of  their  species ;  for  example,  by  the 
senses  I  see  this  oak,  which  is  only  one  specimen  out  of  a  multi- 
tude. Scientific  knowing  so  re-enforces  my  sense-perception  by  the 
sense-perception  of  all  men  that  I  ma}7  come  to  see  in  this  oak  all 
oaks,  or,  rather,  I  may  compare  it  with  the  species  and  note  its 
defects. 

Beatrice  improves  the  occasion  to  reprehend  vehemently  that 
sort  of  theologians  and  preachers  who  have,  through  ignorance  or 
avarice,  substituted  inventions  of  their  own  for  the  truth. 

They  now  ascend  to  the  highest  heaven — the  tenth — and  Dante 
sees  the  river  of  light  of  the  Empyrean  and  the  White  Rose  of 
Paradise,  in  which  all  the  souls  of  all  the  heavens  find  their 
place,  the  Paradise  being  symbolized  by  this  perfect  participation 
of  each  in  the  whole. 


Dante's  "Divina  (Jommedia"  153 

Beatrice  takes  up  the  question  of  the  ignorance  and  avarice  of 
the  clergy,  and  also  hints  of  the  sale  of  indulgences,  supplement- 
ing St.  Peter's  condemnation  of  higher  dignitaries. 

§  3T.  The  Empyrean.    The  White  Rose  of  Paradise.    The  Vision 

of  God. 

In  the  tenth  heaven  Dante  beholds  the  river  of  light : 

"  And  light  I  saw  in  fashion  of  a  river 
Fulvid  with  its  effulgence,  'twixt  two  banks 
Depicted  with  an  admirable  Spring. 
Out  of  this  river  issued  living  sparks, 
And  on  all  sides  sank  down  into  the  flowers, 
•Like  unto  rubies  that  are  set  in  gold ; 
And  then,  as  if  inebriate  with  the  odors, 
They  plunged  again  into  the  wondrous  torrent, 
And  as  one  entered,  issued  forth  another." 

(L.  Tr.),  xxx,  61-69. 

This  river  takes  the  form  of  the  White  Rose  of  Paradise : 


154  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

"  Thus  into  greater  pomp  were  changed  for  me 
The  flowerets  and  the  sparks,  so  that  I  saw 
Both  of  the  Courts  of  Heaven  made  manifest.  .  .  . 
There  is  a  light  above,  which  visible 
Makes  the  Creator  unto  every  creature, 
Who  only  in  beholding  Him  has  peace, 
And  it  expands  itself  in  circular  form 
To  such  extent  that  its  circumference 
Would  be  too  large  a  girdle  for  the  sun.  .  .  . 
And  as  a  hill  in  water  at  its  base 
Mirrors  itself,  as  if  to  see  its  beauty 
When  affluent  most  in  verdure  and  in  flowers, 
So,  ranged  aloft  all  around  about  the  light, 
Mirrored  I  saw  in  more  ranks  than  a  thousand 
All  who  above  there  have  from  us  returned." 

— (L.  Tr.),  xxx,  94-114. 

"  Into  the  Yellow  of  the  Rose  Eternal 
That  spreads,  and  multiplies,  and  breathes  an  odor 
Of  praise  unto  the  ever-vernal  Sun," 

Beatrice  drew  him  as  if  she  fain  would  speak,  and  said : 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  155 

"Behold  how  vast  the  circuit  of  our  city  ! 
Behold  our  seats  so  filled  to  overflowing, 
That  here  henceforward  are  few  people  wanting ! " 

(L.  Tr.),  xxx,  130-132. 

Dante  compares  his  vision  of  the  rose  to  the  vision  of  a  barba- 
rian who  has  come  from  some  remote  region,  and  now  "  beholds 
Rome  and  all  her  noble  works  "  : 

"  I,  who  to  the  divine  had  from  the  human, 
From  time  unto  eternity,  had  come 
From  Florence  to  a  people  just  and  sane, 
With  what  amazement  must  I  have  heen  filled  ! " 

He  turns  round  to  question  Beatrice  concerning  this  wonderful 
sight,  but  she  has  vanished  and  taken  her  place  as  a  petal  in  the 
great  white  rose,  and  Dante  finds  an  old  man  robed  in  glory  by 
his  side,  who  has  been  summoned  by  Beatrice  to  aid  him.  It  is 
St.  Bernard.  After  explaining  the  blessed  souls  on  their  thrones 
in  the  Mystic  Rose  of  Paradise,  St.  Bernard  addresses  a  prayer 
to  the  Virgin  as  symbol  of  Divine  Grace  to  aid  Dante,  and  he  is 


156  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

permitted  to  have  a  glimpse  of  the  great  mystery  of  the  Holy 
Trinity.  He  sees  something  that  suggests  the  human  image  in  the 
eternal  light  of  the  Godhead.  If  man  is  in  God's  image,  there 
is  something  human  to  be  discerned  in  the  form  divine. 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  157 

IY.  DANTE'S  MYTHOLOGY. 

§  38.  The  Angelic  Knowing. 

According  to  scholastic  philosophy,  the  human  mode  of  know- 
ing differs  from  the  angelic  through  this:  The  angels  know  by 
means  of  pure  illumination,  while  men  know  by  means  of  the 
symbolism  involved  in  objects  perceptible  by  the  senses  ("  Para- 
diso,"  xxix,  79-81).  At  first  this  seems  a  mere  idle  distinction 
based  on  no  ascertained  facts  and  with  a  purely  imaginary  psy- 
chological distinction  at  its  basis.  But  a  careful  consideration 
will  discover  an  important  thought  in  the  definition. 

It  is  readily  granted  that  the  growth  of  the  human  intellect  is 
from  particular  facts  to  general  truths.  The  immediate  fact  sug- 
gests to  us  presuppositions,  and  we  learn  to  observe  relations  and 
to  think  an  object  in  its  relations.  Moreover,  we  discover  corre- 
spondences between  one  series  of  phenomena  and  another,  and 
thereby  enrich  our  language  by  means  of  trope  and  metaphor. 
The  poetic  faculty  of  man  thus  arises.  We  especially  learn  to 


158  The  Spiritual  Se<nse  of 

express  our  internal  states  and  conditions — the  feelings,  desires, 
volitions,  and  ideas  of  the  soul  by  means  of  words  that  had  origi- 
nally only  a  material  signification  and  applied  only  to  things  per- 
ceptible by  the  senses. 

So,  too,  our  scientific  activity  has  a  movement  from  particular 
facts  to  general  principles.  At  first  there  is  a  feeble  effort  at 
mere  classification,  or  a  statistical  inventory.  By  and  by  laws  are 
reached,  and  then  energies  are  inferred  as  operating  through  these 
laws.  Finally,  knowledge  becomes  so  complete  that  it  sees  prin- 
ciples, and  in  them  recognizes  energies  acting  in  the  form  of  laws. 
A  natural  principle  is  an  energy  or  force  or  cause  that  acts  accord- 
ing to  its  own  laws,  or,  in  other  words,  according  to  its  definite 
nature. 

When  the  scientific  mind  has  reached  a  principle  it  can  deduce 
from  it  et priori  the  facts  that  will  follow  as  results. 

The  application  of  science  is  called  art.  It  is  evident  that  the 
existence  of  art,  properly  so  called,  depends  upon  the  possibility 
of  guiding  practice  by  a  knowledge  of  principles. 

In  his  philosophic  activity  man  traces  back  all  principles  to  one 
principle  as  fundamental  presupposition.  From  this  one  princi- 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia."  159 

pie  thus  found  he  descends  by  deduction  along  the  line  of  prin- 
ciples, seeing  the  necessary  causes  and  conditions  that  operate  in 
the  world,  and  comprehending  the  necessity  of  the  general  order 
and  form  of  things  and  events. 

Although  man  possesses  and  uses  his  capacity  for  philosophic 
knowledge,  yet  for  the  most  part  the  activity  of  his  mind  is  de- 
voted to  the  inventory  of  particular  facts  and  events,  and  to  an 
equally  special  practical  activity  of  arranging,  ordering,  and  pro- 
ducing particular  things  and  events,  useful  or  hurtful  to  human 
interests. 

If  man  should  ever  become  so  well  acquainted  with  principles 
that  he  habitually  put  his  knowledge  into  the  form  of  deduction 
from  the  first  principle,  he  would  know  by  "  pure  illumination  " 
just  as  the  angels  are  said  to  know.  To  see  at  a  glance  the  con- 
sequences of  the  energy  of  the  first  principle  creatively  descend- 
ing from  the  universal  toward  the  particular  is  to  have  pure  illu- 
mination. But  so  long  as  one's  knowledge  of  principles  is  so  im- 
perfect that  he  cannot  comprehend  them  in  the  double  sense  of 
energy  and  law,  he  cannot  use  them  deductively.  In  this  respect 
human  science  is  constantly  on  the  road  of  progress.  Some  spe- 


160  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

cies  of  knowledge,  like  mathematics,  have  been  deductive  since 
the  dawn  of  civilization. 

Mathematical  applications,  like  astronomy  and  other  branches 
of  physics,  have  long  been  deductive  and  in  a  condition  to  predict 
results  of  combinations  and  processes.  So,  too,  in  the  highest  sci- 
entific minds  in  many  departments  of  biology  there  are  instances 
of  men  becoming  so  familiar  with  the  principle  of  life  in  special 
provinces  as  to  possess  a  ready  intuitive  knowledge  which  led 
them  to  numerous  discoveries.  They  knew  the  whole  from  in- 
spection of  the  part  because  they  had  become  so  familiar  with  the 
analogies  of  nature  that  a  luminous  principle  had  come  to  be  seen, 
arid  they  could  "  anticipate  experience,"  to  use  an  expression  of 
the  philosopher  Kant.  Their  intuition  was  a  sort  of  "  pure  illu- 
mination," and  if  they  had  been  able  to  trace  their  principle  back 
to  the  first  principle  so  as  to  see  vastly  wider  analogies,  they 
would  have  attained  to  the  veritable  pure  illumination  which  the 
schoolmen  defined  as  the  characteristic  of  angelic  knowledge. 

Human  experience,  therefore,  is  in  the  nature  of  a  ladder  which 
helps  us  to  attain  an  elevation  upon  which  we  may  walk  securely 
without  afterward  needing  the  ladder.  Of  course  I  am  aware 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  161 

that  the  empirical  psychology  of  the  present  day  does  not  take 
this  view  of  the  matter.  It  supposes  that  knowledge  is  firmly 
based  on  facts,  and  that  it  remains  conditioned  by  them  and  can 
never  soar  on  its  own  wings  without  losing  the  certainty  of  scien- 
tific knowledge.  But  in  this  I  conceive  it  has  not  followed  its 
own  advice  and  examined  carefully  the  state  of  scientific  knowl- 
edge, nor  accurately  analyzed  the  practical  action  of  the  scientific 
mind  as  it  is  actually  employed  in  scientific  questions.  Rather 
than  this,  it  furnishes  us  an  example  of  what  it  condemns.  It 
sweepingly  concludes  regarding  the  possibilities  of  knowledge  and 
its  necessary  conditions,  from  supposed  principles  from  supposed 
knowledge  concerning  the  energy  called  mind  and  its  laws  of 
action. 

But  the  poetic  faculty  of  the  soul  which  we  have  already  men- 
tioned is  perhaps  a  more  wonderful  illustration  of  the  distinction 
between  the  angelic  and  human  modes  of  cognition,  and  of  the 
ascent  of  the  latter  into  the  former.  A  great  poet  converts  all 
things  and  events  lying  familiar  about  him  in  the  world  into 
tropes  and  similitudes,  so  that  they  lose  their  imposing  airs  of  act- 
uality and  become  transparent  images  of  ideas  and  spiritual  truth. 


162  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

If  he  accomplishes  so  much  as  this  by  means  of  his  tropes  and 
personifications,  he  accomplishes  far  more  than  this  by  means  of 
his  entire  poetic  structures,  for  the  individual  tropes  are  only  the 
brick  and  mortar  of  the  poetic  edifice.  What  the  scientific  prin- 
ciple is  to  the  isolated  facts  and  events,  the  poetic  structure  is  to 
the  separate  tropes  and  personifications.  It  organizes  them  into 
a  whole.  It  connects  them  with  a  central  unity  which  stands  to 
them  in  the  twofold  relation  of  efficient  and  final  cause.  It  is  at 
once  their  origin  and  the  final  purpose  for  which  they  exist. 

§  39.  The  Poetic  Myihos —  What  it  Embodies. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  supreme  object  of  a  great  poetic  work 
of  art  is  the  production  of  a  myth.  A  myth  furnishes  a  poetic 
explanation  for  a  class  of  phenomena  observed  in  the  world.  The 
mind  that  can  see  tropes  in  natural  objects  sees  his  way  lighted  by 
their  converging  rays  to  an  underlying  unity.  Under  tropes  of 
small  compass  lie  more  extensive  tropes,  which  unite  the  former 
into  a  consistent  whole.  And,  as  the  poet's  fundamental  insight 
into  the  world  is  this,  that  the  things  and  events  of  the  world  are 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia."  163 

means  of  spiritual  expression,  themselves  moved  and  shaped  by 
spiritual  being,  which  they  both  hide  and  reveal,  it  follows  that  his 
combination  of  these  poetic  elements  produces  a  whole  structure 
that  is  spiritual  throughout  and  a  revelation  of  human  nature 
such  as  the  poet  has  conceived  and  fitted  to  the  world  he  has 
created. 

Most  beloved  among  mortal  men  is  the  poet.  He  is  eyes  to  the 
blind  and  ears  to  the  deaf.  He  is  intuition  and  reflection  for  all. 
He  furnishes  his  people  a  view  of  the  world  in  which  they  can  all 
unite.  Hence  he  is  the  inspired  Orpheus  who  builds  cities  and 
civilizations.  His  inspired  mythos  is  recognized  as  the  highest 
possession  of  the  race,  and  implicit  faith  in  it  is  demanded  of  all 
men.  While  it  is  permitted  to  deny  the  reality  of  existing  facts 
and  events,  it  is  never  permitted  to  deny  the  truth  of  the  poetic 
mythos  which  unites  .a  people  in  one  civilization. 

It  is  worth  while,  therefore,  to  study  with  all  care  the  workings 
of  a  great  poet's  mind,  and  to  note  also  what  phases  of  nature  he 
finds  most  available  as  vehicles  for  his  myths.  It  has  already  been 
observed  that  the  poet  sees  in  the  inanimate  things  and  events  of 
nature  a  revelation  of  rational  will — that  is  to  say,  of  spiritual 


164  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

being  like  himself  and  humanity.     Conscious  being  is  the  key  to 
the  universe  in  the  poet's  hands. 

Not  only  in  poetic  art,  but  in  all  art — sculpture,  poetry,  music, 
and  architecture — there  is  a  seeking  after  rhythm  or  after  regu- 
larity, symmetry,  and  harmony,  and  a  delight  in  them  simply  as 
such  as  though  they  constituted  indubitable  evidence  of  a  rational 
cause  identical  in  nature  with  the  human  mind  that  beholds  it. 
What  is  consciousness  but  the  rhythm  of  subject  and  object  con- 
tinually distinguishing  and  continually  recognizing  and  identify- 
ing? In  this  is  regularity  and  symmetry  and  also  harmony. 
There  is  the  repetition  involved  in  self-knowing — the  self  being 
subject  and  likewise  object — hence  regularity.  The  shallowest 
mind,  the  child  or  the  savage,  delights  in  monotonous  repetition, 
not  possessing,  however,  the  slightest  insight  into  the  cause  of  his 
delight.  To  us  the  phenomenon  is  intelligible.  We  see  that  his 
perception  is  like  a  spark  under  a  heap  of  smoking  flax.  There 
is  little  fire  of  conscious  insight,  but  much  smoke  of  pleasurable 
feeling.  He  feels  rather  than  perceives  the  fact  of  the  identity 
which  exists  in  form  between  the  rhythm  of  his  internal  soul- 
activity  and  the  sense-perception  by  which  he  perceives  regularity. 


Daniels  "Divina  Commedia"  165 

§  40.  The  Sun  Myth  •  its  Significance  as  Physical  Description 

of  Mind. 

The  sun  myth  arises  through  the  same  feeling,  illuminated  by 
the  poetic  insight.  Wherever  there  is  repetition,  especially  in  the 
form  of  revolution  or  return-to-itself,  there  comes  this  conscious 
or  unconscious  satisfaction  at  beholding  it.  Hence  especially  cir- 
cular movement,  or  movement  in  cycles,  is  the  most  wonderful  of 
all  the  phenomena  beheld  by  primitive  man.  Nature  presents  to 
his  observation  infinite  differences.  Out  of  the  confused  mass  he 
traces  some  forms  of  recurrence :  day  and  night,  the  phases  of  the 
moon,  the  seasons  of  the  year,  genus  and  species  in  animals  and 
plants,  the  apparent  revolutions  of  the  fixed  stars,  and  the  orbits 
of  planets.  These  phenomena  furnish  him  symbols  or  types  in 
which  to  express  his  ideas  concerning  the  divine  principle  that  he 
feels  to  be  First  Cause.  To  the  materialistic  student  of  sociology 
all  religions  are  mere  transfigured  sun  myths.  But  to  the  deeper 
student  of  psychology  it  becomes  clear  that  the  sun  myth  itself 
rests  on  the  perception  of  identity  between  regular  cycles  and  the 
rhythm  which  characterizes  the  activity  of  self-consciousness. 


166  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

And  self -consciousness  is  felt  and  seen  to  be  a  form  of  being  not 
on  a  level  with  mere  transient,  individual  existence,  but  the  essen- 
tial attribute  of  the  Divine  Being,  Author  of  all. 

Here  we  see  how  deep-seated  and  significant  is  this  blind  in- 
stinct or  feeling  which  is  gratified  by  the  seeing  and  hearing  of 
mere  regularity.  The  words  which  express  the  divine  in  all  lan- 
guages root  in  this  sense-perception  and  in  the  aesthetic  pleasure 
attendant  on  it.  Philology,  discovering  the  sun-myth  origin  of 
religious  expression,  places  the  expression  before  the  thing  ex- 
pressed, the  symbol  before  the  thing  signified.  It  tells  us  that 
religions  arise  from  a  sort  of  disease  in  language  which  turns 
poetry  into  prose.  But  underneath  the  aesthetic  feeling  lies  the 
perception  of  identity  which  makes  possible  the  trope  or  meta- 
phor. 

In  the  poetic  mythos  there  is  a  collection  of  those  phenomena 
which  have  astonished  the  primitive  consciousness  of  the  race  and 
impressed  on  the  soul  a  deep  feeling  of  awe.  Unutterable  ques- 
tions have  made  themselves  dimly  felt  at  the  constant  spectacle 
of  nature's  returning  cycles.  The  activity  of  the  mind  with  its 
regular  and  symmetrical  recurrence  or  rhythm — the  vibration  be- 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  167 

tween  subject  and  object,  its  alternation  of  seizing  an  object  at 
first  new  and  unknown  and  then  recognizing  in  it  what  is  already 
become  familiar,  the  alternation  of  subject  and  predicate — have 
not  been  recognized  as  the  characteristics  of  mind,  but  these  phe- 
nomena of  return-into-self  have  excited  its  attention  and  suggested 
first  the  far-off  questions  of  the  cycle  of  the  soul  reaching  beyond 
this  life  into  the  hereafter. 

Of  all  nations,  the  Egyptians  were  the  most  inclined  to  study 
these  analogies  of  nature.  Because  of  the  fact  that  the  supreme 
natural  circumstance  in  Egyptian  life  is  the  Nile,  and  its  cycles  of 
rise  and  fall  alternating  with  seed-time  and  harvest,  this  attention 
to  cycles  finds  its  natural  occasion  and  explanation.  The  calendar 
and  the  signs  of  the  seasons  of  the  year  became  objects  of  the 
utmost  solicitude.  By  and  by  the  poetic  faculty  seized  on  the 
phenomena  and  the  doctrine  of  immortality  was  embodied  in  a 
mythos  for  mankind.  There  is  the  still  world  of  Amenti  where 
the  good  Egyptian  goes  to  dwell  with  Osiris. 

But  the  most  highly  gifted  of  all  peoples  in  poetic  insight  were 
the  Greeks.  They  possessed  supreme  ability  in  the  interpretation 
of  nature  as  expression  of  spirit. 


168  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

They  have  countless  mythoses  to  express  the  immortality  of 
man  and  his  after-life.  Some  of  the  more  notable  of  these  we 
must  briefly  consider. 

§  41.  Homers  Mythos  of  Hades. 

In  the  eleventh  book  of  Homer's  "  Odyssey  "  we  have  the  Greek 
mythosofthe  state  after  death.  The  great  poet  Homer  under- 
stands human  freedom  and  retribution,  making  this  circle  of  the 
deed  and  its  return,  however,  include  the  gods  on  Olympus '  and 
the  life  of  men  on  earth  in  one  process.  He  does  not  yet  con- 
ceive the  return  of  the  deed  as  directly  the  affair  of  human  society 
and  the  individual,  and  hence  does  not  punish  in  his  Hades  the 
wickedness  of  men,  although  he  symbolizes  from  a  distance  this 
species  of  retribution  by  the  examples  of  Orion,  Tityus,  and  espe- 
cially of  Tantalus  and  Sisyphus. 

Orion  is  hunting  beasts  in  the  meadow  of  Asphodel.     Tityus, 


1  Mr.  D.  J.  Snider,  in  his  essays  on  the  "  Iliad  "  ("  Journal  of  Speculative  Philosophy  " 
for  April  and  October,  1883  ;  for  January,  July,  and  October,  1884  ;  and  for  July  1887) 
has  shown  clearly  how  this  ethical  process  goes  on — one  part  of  it  on  Olympus  and  the 
other  part  around  Troy. 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  169 

the  son  of  the  very  renowned  Earth,  lies  on  the  ground  stretched 
over  nine  acres ;  two  vultures  gnaw  his  liver,  and  thus  he  expi- 
ates his  violence  done  to  Latona.  Even  Hercules,  although  de- 
lighted with  banquets,  is  surrounded  with  a  perpetual  clang  of 
the  dead  and  is  continually  startled  and  on  the  alert.  He  holds 
his  naked  bow  and  an  arrow  on  the  string,  looking  about  terribly, 
always  ready  to  let  fly  an  arrow  at  some  approaching  monster. 
The  atmosphere  of  earthly  labors  still  envelops  him. 

"  And  I  beheld  Tantalus,  suffering  severe  griefs,  standing  in  a 
lake;  and  it  approached  his  chin.  But  he  stood  thirsting,  and 
he  could  not  get  anything  to  drink ;  for  as  often  as  the  old  man 
stooped,  desiring  to  drink,  so  often  the  water,  being  sucked  up, 
was  lost  to  him  ;  and  the  black  earth  appeared  around  his  feet, 
and  the  Deity  dried  it  up.  And  lofty  trees  shed  down  fruit  from 
the  top,  pear-trees,  and  apples,  and  pomegranates  producing  glori- 
ous fruit,  and  sweet  figs,  and  flourishing  olives ;  of  which,  when 
the  old  man  raised  himself  up  to  pluck  some  with  his  hands,  the 
wind  kept  casting  them  away  to  the  dark  clouds. 

"  And  I  beheld  Sisyphus,  having  violent  griefs,  bearing  an  enor- 
mous stone  with  both  his  hands  ;  he  indeed,  leaning  with  his  hands 


170  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

and  feet,  kept  thrusting  the  stone  up  to  the  top ;  but  when  it  was 
about  to  pass  over  the  summit,  then  strong  force  began  to  drive  it 
back  again  ;  then  the  impudent  stone  rolled  to  the  plain  ;  but  he, 
striving,  kept  thrusting  it  back,  and  the  sweat  flowed  down  from 
his  limbs,  and  dust  begrimed  his  head." — (Buckley's  Tr.) 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Homer  in  his  "  Odyssey  "  first  sug- 
gested the  selection  of  Minos  as  judge  in  the  lower  world. 

"There  I  beheld  Minos,  the  illustrious  son  of  Jove,  having  a 
golden  sceptre,  giving  laws  to  the  dead,  sitting  down,  but  the 
others  around  him,  the  king,  pleaded  their  causes,  sitting  and 
standing  through  the  wide-gated  house  of  Pluto." 

§  42.  Plato's  Threefold  Future  Life  in  the  "  Pha&do." 

In  Plato's  "  Phaedo  "  we  have  a  much  more  definite  picture  of 
the  future  state,  involving  not  only  the  punishment  of  the  wicked, 
but  their  purification  also.  To  Plato,  therefore,  is  to  be  accred- 
ited the  invention  of  Purgatory  and  the  discrimination  of  three 
states  in  the  future  life. 

"  For  after  death,  as  they  say,  the  genius  of  each  individual  to 
whom  he  belonged  in  life  leads  him  to  a  certain  place  in  which 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia."  171 

the  dead  are  gathered  together  for  judgment,  whence  they  go 
into  the  world  below,  following  the  guide  who  is  appointed  to 
conduct  them  from  this  world  to  the  other ;  and  when  they  have 
there  received  their  due  and  remained  their  time,  another  guide 
brings  them  back  again  after  many  revolutions  of  ages.  Now, 
this  journey  to  the  other  world  is  not,  as  ^Eschylus  says  in  the 
"  Telephus,"  a  single  and  straight  path — no  guide  would  be  wanted 
for  that  and  no  one  could  miss  a  single  path — but  there  are  many 
partings  of  the  road,  and  windings,  as  I  must  infer  from  the  rites 
and  sacrifices  which  are  offered  to  the  Gods  below,  in  places  where 
three  ways  meet  on  earth.  The  wise  and  orderly  soul  is  conscious 
of  her  situation  and  follows  in  the  path ;  but  the  soul  which  de- 
sires the  body  and  which,  as  I  was  relating  before,  has  long  been 
fluttering  about  the  lifeless  frame  and  the  world  of  sight,  is,  after 
many  struggles  and  many  sufferings,  hardly  and  with  violence 
carried  away  by  her  attendant  genius,  and  when  she  arrives  at 
the  place  where  the  other  souls  are  gathered,  if  she  be  impure  and 
have  done  impure  deeds,  or  been  concerned  in  foul  murders  or  other 
crimes  which  are  brothers  of  these,  and  the  works  of  brothers 
in  crime — from  that  soul  every  one  flees  and  turns  away ;  no  one 


172  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

will  be  her  companion,  no  one  her  guide,  but  alone  she  wanders 
in  extremity  of  evil  until  certain  times  are  fulfilled,  and  when 
they  are  fulfilled  she  is  borne  irresistibly  to  her  own  fitting  habi- 
tation, as  every  pure  and  just  soul  which  has  passed  through  life 
in  the  company  and  under  the  guidance  of  the  gods  has  also  her 
own  proper  home. — (Plato's  "Phaedo,"  Jowett's  Tr.,  p.  438.) 

Plato,  too,  gives  a  minute  description  of  the  Infernal  rivers 
which  Dante  makes  so  impressive.  He  mentions  Tartarus,  Ache- 
ron, Pyriphlegethon,  Styx,  Cocytus,  borrowing  from  Horner,  who 
uses  all  of  these  (in  the  "  Odyssey,"  except  Tartarus,  which  occurs 
in  the  "  Iliad,"  Book  viii),  as  well  as  Erebus. 

He  then  continues  his  account  of  the  processes  of  punishment 
and  purification  : 

"  Such  is  the  nature  of  the  other  world ;  and  when  the  dead 
arrive  at  the  place  to  which  the  genius  of  each  severally  conveys 
them,  first  of  all,  they  have  sentence  passed  upon  them,  as  they 
have  lived  well  and  piously  or  not.  And  those  who  appear  to 
have  lived  neither  well  nor  ill  [or  rather  '  those  who  have  lived 
average  lives '  (01  pea-as  /Se/Swa/eei/at)  ;  Professor  Jowett's  '  neither 
well  nor  ill '  contradicts  the  '  evil  deeds,'  '  wrongs  they  have  done  to 


Dant^s  "Divina  Commedia"  173 

others,'  and  'good  deeds 'spoken  of  below]  go  to  the  river  Acheron 
and  mount  such  conveyances  as  they  can  get,  and  are  carried  in  them 
to  the  Acherusian  lake ;  and  there  they  dwell  and  are  purified  of 
their  evil  deeds — [here  is  Purgatory] — and  suffer  the  penalty  of 
the  wrongs  which  they  have  done  to  others,  and  are  absolved,  and 
receive  the  rewards  of  their  good  deeds  according  to  their  deserts. 
But  those  who  appear  to  be  incurable  by  reason  of  the  greatness 
of  their  crimes — who  have  committed  many  and  terrible  deeds  of 
sacrilege,  murders  foul  and  violent,  or  the  like — such  are  hurled 
into  Tartarus,  which  is  their  suitable  destiny,  and  they  never  come 
out  [this  is  the  Inferno].  Those,  again,  who  have  committed 
crimes  which,  although  great,  are  not  unpardonable — who  in  a 
moment  of  anger,  for  example,  have  done  violence  to  a  father  or 
a  mother,  and  have  repented  for  the  remainder  of  their  lives,  or 
who  have  taken  the  life  of  another  under  the  like  extenuating 
circumstances — these  are  plunged  into  Tartarus,  the  pains  of  which 
they  are  compelled  to  undergo  for  a  year ;  but  at  the  end  of  a  year 
the  wave  casts  them  forth — mere  homicides  by  way  of  Cocytus, 
parricides  and  matricides  by  Pyriphlegethon — and  they  are  borne 
to  the  Acherusian  lake,  and  there  they  lift  up  their  voices  and 


174  .  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

call  upon  the  victims  whom  they  have  slain  or  wronged  to  have 
pity  on  them  and  to  receive  them,  and  to  let  them  come  out  of 
the  river  into  the  lake.  And  if  they  prevail,  then  they  come  forth 
and  cease  from  their  troubles ;  but  if  not,  they  are  carried  back 
again  into  Tartarus  and  from  thence  into  the  rivers  unceasingly, 
until  they  obtain  mercy  from  those  whom  they  have  wronged  : 
for  that  is  the  sentence  inflicted  upon  them  by  their  judges.  [Here 
we  have  Purgatory  again,  with  the  method  of  purification  speci- 
fied.] Those  also  who  are  remarkable  for  having  led  holy  lives 
are  released  from  this  earthly  prison  and  go  to  their  pure  home 
which  is  above,  and  dwell  in  the  purer  earth  ;  and  those  who  have 
duly  purified  themselves  with  philosophy  live  henceforth  alto- 
gether without  the  body  in  mansions  fairer  far  than  these,  which 
may  not  be  described  [Plato's  '  Paradiso  '],  and  of  which  the  time 
would  fail  me  to  tell."— (Jowett,  "  Phsedo,"  443,  444.) 

§  43.  Plato's  Mythos  of  Er.     The  Purgatory. 

In  the  tenth  book  of  his  "  Republic "  Plato  tells  the  story  of 
Er,  the  son  of  Armenius,  a  Parnphylian,  who  was  apparently 
slain  on  the  field  of  battle  but  had  really  fallen  into  a  trance  and 


Dante's  "Dimna  Commedia."  175 

remained  thus  until  the  twelfth  day.  On  reviving,  he  told  the 
story  of  his  visit  to  the  other  world,  where  he  beheld  the  last  judg- 
ment. The  just  were  sent  upward  on  a  heavenly  way  with  a 
seal  of  judgment  on  their  foreheads  (suggesting  Dante's  seven 
p'sf\  while  the  unjust  were  commanded  by  the  judges  to  "de- 
scend by  the  lower  way  on  the  left  hand  with  the  symbols  of  their 
deeds  fastened  on  their  backs."  What  is  most  wonderful  in  this 
story  follows:  For  it  seems  that  after  judgment  the  souls  go 
on  journeys  lasting  a  thousand  years  for  each  hundred  years  of 
their  former  lives  (suggesting  the  period  of  the  Procrastinators 
wandering  on  the  lowest  terrace).  They  come  together,  however, 
after  the  lapse  of  this  period,  both  the  good  and  the  bad,  and  de- 
scribe to  each  other  their  experiences,  those  who  had  gone  below 
weeping  and  sorrowing  at  the  recollection  of  their  hard  lot  on 
their  journey,  and  those  who  had  gone  above  relating  the  delights 
and  visions  of  beauty  in  heaven.  After  seven  days  of  this  reunion 
they  set  out  anew  on  a  journey  to  the  place  where  they  behold 
the  spectacle  of  the  universe  with  its  eight  heavens  arranged 
like  hollow  shells  around  about  the  gigantic  spindle  of  necessity 
that  pierces  through  the  universe  as  its  axis  of  revolution.  There 


176  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

is  the  outermost  heaven  (1)  of  the  fixed  stars,  and  then,  arranged 
concentrically,  the  heavens  of  the  planets,  being  as  follows  :  (2) 
Saturn,  next  to  the  fixed  stars ;  (3)  Jupiter,  second  in  whiteness  ; 
(4)  Mars,  reddish  in  hue;  (5)  Sun,  brightest  light;  (6)  Venus, 
whitest ;  (T)  Mercury,  like  Saturn,  both  being  yellowish  ;  (8)  Moon, 
colored  by  light  reflected  from  the  sun.  Here  is  the  suggestion  of 
eight  of  Dante's  heavens. 

Each  heaven  moves  at  the  song  of  a  siren  (Dante's  Angels  of 
the  Hierarchy),  and  the  music  of  all  forms  a  harmony.  Around 
about  these  heavens  on  the  tripod  of  the  universe  sit  the  three 
fates,  Lachesis  singing  of  the  past,  Clotho  of  the  present,  and 
Atropos  of  the  future.  Clotho  keeps  in  motion  the  heaven  of  the 
fixed  stars,  while  Atropos  guides  the  inner  ones,  giving  them  their 
various  retrograde  motions,  and  Lachesis  assists  at  both.  The 
journeying  spirits,  having  arrived  before  Lachesis,  now  choose 
new  lots  of  life,  so  that  they  may  reascend  to  the  earth.  A  prophet 
standing  before  Lachesis  bids  each  choose  his  life  freely  and  in 
view  of  his  experiences  on  the  long  journey  he  has  undergone : 
;'  Your  genius  will  not  choose  for  you,  but  you  will  choose  your 
genius.  .  .  .  Virtue  is  free,  and  as  a  man  honors  or  dishonors  her. 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  177 

he  will  have  more  or  less  of  her ;  the  chooser  is  answerable — God 
is  justified." 

Plato  informs  us  that  those  who  had  experienced  one  human 
life  before  chose  wiser  than  the  new  souls  who  had  never  before 
descended  into  bodies.  The  patterns  of  lives  were  spread  out  on 
the  ground  before  the  souls  to  choose  from.  Those  who  had  re. 
fleeted  much  and  improved  by  experience  and  "  had  acquired  an 
adamantine  faith  in  truth  and  right "  were  not  dazzled  by  wealth 
and  other  allurements,  but  chose  virtuous  lives,  and  consequently 
happy  ones.  Others  chose  bad  lives.  The  great  idea  of  responsi- 
bility is  emphasized  in  the  strongest  manner  in  this  myth  of 
Plato.  It  had  not  yet  been  born  in  the  rninds  of  the  Greek  peo- 
ple (witness  the  Nemesis  that  repressed  high  aspiration — too  much 
choice),  arid  consequently  we  do  not  find  it  in  the  Greek  religion. 
What  we  find  in  the  Greek  philosophy,  however,  gets  realized  in 
the  mythos  of  succeeding  ages.  Note  particularly  in  the  myth  of 
Er  that  it  is  the  purgatorial  idea  that  is  uppermost.  The  present 
life  is  a  probation,  and  the  next  life  is  determined  at  first  by  the 
present  life.  After  a  journey  ten  times  the  length  of  the  present 
life  and  determined  by  the  present  life  has  passed  away,  a  new 


178  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

life  is  to  be  chosen  by  the  individual  with  opportunity  to  avail 
himself  of  all  his  earthly  experience  as  well  as  his  experience  in 
Hades.  But  Plato  introduces  the  genuine  Inferno  for  the  worst 
speeies  of  tyrants  and  murderers — punishing  treachery  and  vio- 
lence by  depriving  the  sinner  of  the  privilege  of  journeying  and 
of  profitable  experience  in  Hades.  There  are  frames  of  mind,  saw 
Plato,  in  which  the  individual  does  not  profit  by  his  experience, 
and  such  dispositions  are  hopeless ;  they  are  in  the  Inferno  and 
not  in  the  Purgatory. 

Er  relates  that  Ardiaeus  the  Great  (tyrant  and  parricide  of  Pam- 
phy  lia)  and  other  like  sinners,  attempting  to  come  out  of  the  "  lower 
way  "  to  the  place  of  new  choice,  were  seized  and  carried  oif  by 
wild  men  of  fiery  aspect  (Dante's  demons  of  the  "Inferno"),  who 
"  bound  them  head,  foot,  and  hand,  and  threw  them  down  and 
flayed  them  with  scourges,  and  dragged  them  along  the  road  at 
the  side,  carding  them  on  thorns  like  wool,  and  declaring  to  the 
pilgrims  as  they  passed  what  were  their  crimes,  and  that  they 
were  being  taken  away  to  be  cast  into  Tartarus." — (Jowett's  Tr.) 

The  state  of  mind  of  those  who  choose  the  worst  lots  is  well 
depicted  by  Plato.  One  chooses  a  life  of  the  greatest  tyranny. 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  179 

"  His  mind  having  been  darkened  by  folly  and  sensuality,  he  did 
not  well  consider,  and  therefore  did  not  see  at  first,  that  he  was 
fated,  among  other  evils,  to  devour  his  own  children.  But  when 
he  came  to  himself  and  saw  what  was  in  his  lot  he  began  to  beat 
his  breast  and  lament  over  his  choice,  forgetting  the  warning  of 
the  prophet.  For,  instead  of  blaming  himself  as  the  author  of  his 
calamity,  he  accused  chance  and  the  gods,  and  everything  rather 
than  himself."  This  thought  is  adopted  by  Dante,  we  have  seen, 
as  a  definition  of  the  pervading  frame  of  mind  of  the  sinners  in 
the  "  Inferno."  "  They  blasphemed  God  and  their  parents ;  the 
human  kind  ;  the  place,  the  time,  and  the  origin  of  their  seed  and 
of  their  birth.— (Inf.,  iii,  103.) 

Finally,  when  the  souls  had  all  chosen  their  lots  in  life  they 
came  to  the  Fates,  who  spun  their  threads  and  made  them  irre- 
versible ;  external  circumstance  has  no  power  to  change  the  reso- 
lution of  the  free  will.  "  They  then  marched  on  in  a  scorching 
heat  to  the  plain  of  forgetfulness — \^6rj  (Dante's  Lethe) — which 
was  a  barren  waste  destitute  of  trees  and  verdure,  and  toward 
evening  they  encamped  by  the  river  of  Negligence  (a/u.£X.??Ta,  lack 
of  care  or  concern,  general  apathy  and  loss  of  interest),  the  water 


180  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

of  which  river  no  vessel  can  hold."  [Plato  makes  Lethe  a  plain, 
while  Dante  makes  it  a  river,  following  Yirgil.  Lack  of  interest 
is  so  near  non-existence  of  character  that  no  vessel  can  hold  it. 
Not  only  the  memory  of  the  past  is  gone,  but  even  all  instincts 
and  impulses,  "  organic  memory  " — all  "  karma,"  so  to  speak.] 
All  were  obliged  to  drink  of  this  water,  and  those  who  were  not 
saved  by  wisdom  drank  more  than  was  necessary;  and  those  who 
drank  forgot  all  things.  Now,  after  they  had  gone  to  rest,  about 
the  middle  of  the  night,  there  was  a  thunder-storm  and  an  earth- 
quake, and  suddenly  they  were  all  exploded,  so  to  speak,  like 
shooting  stars,  into  the  earthly  life,  and  were  born  again  as  infants." 

§  44.  VirgiVs  " ^Eneid"    Descent  of  ^Eneas  to  Orcus. 

In  the  sixth  book  of  Virgil's  "  ^Eneid  "  there  is  another  state- 
ment of  the  idea  of  the  future  life.  It  is  full  of  hints  which 
Dante  has  followed,  but  it  is  hardly  an  advance  on  the  Platonic 
statement. 

We  might  expect  the  Roman  mind,  especially  given  to  the  in- 
vention of  legal  forms  and  to  the  definition  of  the  just  compass  of 
the  human  will  with  reference  both  to  political  and  civil  freedom 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia."  181 

— i.  e.,  freedom  of  life,  limb,  and  property,  and  freedom  by  means 
of  the  latter  from  thraldom  to  nature — we  might  expect  that  Vir- 
gil, a  Roman,  would  give  us  a  much  more  concrete  and  developed 
view  of  the  idea  of  retribution  in  the  future  life.  We  are  not 
altogether  disappointed  in  this  expectation,  although  we  are  com- 
pelled to  notice  that  even  Virgil  is  far  from  realizing  in  his  poetic 
mind  the  mythos  of  the  completely  independent  personal  will — 
the  doctrine  of  perfect  responsibility — he  retains  the  doctrine  of 
metempsychosis. 

^Eneas  finds  Charon  the  ferryman  and  the  infernal  rivers ;  he 
sees  vast  "  prisons  enclosed  with  a  triple  wall  which  Tartarean 
Phlegethon's  rapid  flood  environs  with  torrents  of  flame,  and 
whirls  roaring  rocks  along.  Fronting  is  a  huge  gate  with  columns 
of  solid  adamant,  that  no  strength  of  men  nor  the  gods  themselves 
can  with  steel  demolish.  An  iron  tower  rises  aloft,  and  there 
wakeful  Tisiphone  sits  watching."  Here  is  evidently  the  sugges- 
tion of  Dante's  towers  of  the  city  of  Dis,  with  its  walls  of  iron 
heated  to  redness  and  guarded  by  the  three  furies.  Cretan 
Rhadamanthus  presides  over  this  special  realm  of  punishment  of 
fraud,  the  furies  being  the  ministers  of  justice.  Below  this  ex- 


182  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

tends  Tartarus,  wherein  the  Titan  brood  are  punished.  Again 
Dante  has  taken  a  hint  for  his  lowest  hell,  making  the  giants  en- 
compass the  pit  of  treachery.  Treachery  seeks  the  complete  dis- 
solution of  all  institutions.  The  giants  even  in  Homer's  u  Odys- 
sey "  have  this  typical  meaning.  They  do  not  live  in  villages,  but 
isolatedly.  Ulysses  relates:  "There  are  no  assemblies  for  con- 
sultation among  this  people,  and  they  have  no  established  laws. 
They  live  on  mountain  summits  in  hollow  caves,  each  gives  the 
law  to  his  own  family,  and  no  one  cares  for  his  neighbors."  They 
have  no  arts  and  trades,  no  commerce,  no  civilization. 

^Eneas  next  comes  to  the  walls  of  Pluto's  realm  and  finds  the 
Paradise  of  Trojan  heroes — "  regions  of  joy,  delightful  green  re- 
treats and  blessed  abodes  in  groves,  where  happiness  abounds." 
Here  are  found  those  who  died  fighting  for  their  country,  also 
"  priests  who  preserved  themselves  pure  and  hoi}7  while  life 
remained;  pious  poets  who  sang  in  strains  worthy  of  Apollo; 
those  who  improved  life  by  the  invention  of  arts,  and,  in  general, 
those  who  by  worthy  deeds  have  caused  posterity  to  remember 
them." 

On  inquiring  for  Anchises,  Musaeus  replies  :  "  None  of  us  have 


Dante's  "Divina  Oommedia."  183 

a  fixed  abode;  in  shady  groves  we  dwell,  or  lie  on  couches  all 
along  the  banks  on  meadows  fresh  with  rivulets,"  etc.  This  sug- 
gests Dante's  thought,  that  each  of  the  souls  in  the  "  Paradise  " 
belongs  to  all  the  heavens,  although  they  appear  in  special  heavens 
to  him.  The  interview  with  Anchises  suggests  that  with  Caccia- 
guida  (Par.  xv,  xvi,  xvii). 

Here,  also,  ./Eneas  learns  the  doctrine  of  purgatory  : 

"  Meanwhile  vEneas  sees  in  the  retired  vale  a  grove  situate  by 
itself,  shrubs  rustling  in  the  woods,  and  the  river  Lethe,  which 
glides  by  those  peaceful  dwellings.  Around  this,  unnumbered 
tribes  and  nations  of  ghosts  were  fluttering  ;  as  in  meadows  on  a 
serene  summer's  day  when  the  bees  sit  on  the  various  blossoms 
and  swarm  around  the  snow-white  lilies,  all  the  plain  buzzes  with 
their  humming  noise." 

"  These  souls  for  whom  other  bodies  are  destined  by  Fate,  at 
the  stream  of  Lethe's  flood  quaff  care-expelling  draughts  and  last- 
ing oblivion." 

"  The  spirit  within  (spiritus  intus  alit)  nourishes  the  heavens, 
the  earth,  and  watery  plains,  the  moon,  the  sun,  and  the  stars. 
The  mind  diffused  through  the  limbs  makes  active  the  entire 


184  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

mass  (mens  agitat  molem),  and  permeates  the  vast  body  of  na- 
ture." This  is  the  reason  why  the  animals  and  man  arise. 

"This  fiery  spiritual  principle  is  of  celestial  origin,  but  souls  are 
clogged  by  the  influence  of  the  body  which  is  hurtful  to  spirit ; 
material  limbs  and  mortal  bodies  dull  The  powers  of  the  soul. 

"  Hence  they  tear  and  desire,  grieve  and  rejoice ;  and,  shut  up 
in  darkness  and  a  gloomy  prison  [the  body],  lose  sight  of  their 
native  skies.  Even  when  with  the  last  beams  of  light  their  life 
is  gone,  yet  not  every  ill,  nor  all  corporeal  stains,  are  quite  removed 
from  the  unhappy  beings ;  and  it  is  absolutely  necessary  [i.  <?.,  it 
cannot  be  but]  that  many  imperfections  which  have  long  been 
joined  to  the  soul  should  be  in  marvellous  ways  increased  and 
riveted  therein  [*'.  0.,  should  have  become  firmly  fixed  or  ingrafted  in 
the  soul — inolescere~\.  Therefore  [because  these  stains  should  be 
removed]  are  they  afflicted  with  punishments  and  pay  the  penal- 
ties of  their  former  ills.  Some,  hung  on  high,  are  spread  out  to 
the  empty  winds  [the  purification  by  air,  the  second  element  above 
the  earthy];  in  others  the  guilt  not  done  away  is  washed  out  in 
a  vast  watery  abyss  [the  first  element  above  the  earthy]  or  burned 
away  in  fire  [purification  by  the  third  element  above  the  earthy]. 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  185 

We  each  endure  his  own  manes  [i.  e.,  suffer  for  our  sins — or 
'  Karma,'  as  the  Hindoos  call  it ;  or,  if  manes  refers  to  Plato's 
"genius" — Sal/jLwv — then  it  means  here  the  punishers  or  avengers]. 
Thence  are  we  conveyed  along  [i.  e.,  into]  the  spacious  Elysium, 
and  we,  the  happy  few,  possess  the  fields  of  bliss,  till  length  of 
time,  after  the  fixed  period  is  elapsed,  hath  done  away  the  inhe- 
rent stain  and  hath  left  the  pure  celestial  reason  and  the  fiery  en- 
ergy of  the  simple  spirit  [i.  e.,  left  it  free  from  its  stains].  All 
these  [souls],  after  a  thousand  years  have  rolled  away,  are.  sum- 
moned forth  by  the  God  in  a  great  body  to  the  river  Lethe ;  to 
the  intent  that  losing  memory  of  the  past  they  may  revisit  the 
vaulted  realms  above  [i.  e.,  revisit  the  surface  of  the  earth],  and 
willingly  return  into  bodies." — (Bonn's  Tr.,  with  emendations.) 

§  45.  Metempsychosis  versus  Eternal  Punishment  in  Hell. 

Metempsychosis — the  doctrine  of  the  transmigration  of  souls,  or 
the  return  to  earth  of  the  soul  after  death  and  its  reincarnation — 
we  see  is  held  by  Plato  and  Virgil.  This,  too,  although  Plato 
makes  the  soul  responsible  for  its  choice  of  the  lot  in  life  that  it 
shall  lead. 


186  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

It  was  necessary  that  Christianity  should  recognize  the  perfect 
responsibility  of  the  human  soul  as  well  as  its  immortal  destina- 
tion. The  mythos  which  should  contain  the  idea  of  complete 
freedom  of  the  will,  or,  what  is  the  same  thing,  perfected  individ- 
uality, would  be  forced  to  express  this  insight  by  laying  infinite 
stress  on  the  determining  power  of  the  individual  in  this  life. 
Nothing  else  could  bring  men  to  realize  the  true  dignity  of  the 
human  soul  and  its  exalted  destiny.  The  individual  soul  is  strict- 
ly responsible  to  God  and  to  the  visible  body  of  the  Divine  Spirit 
here  on  earth — the  Church — for  his  choice  of  his  career  and  for 
his  deeds. 

The  only  form  in  which  the  due  emphasis  could  be  given  to 
this  doctrine  of  responsibility  was  that  chosen  by  the  mythos 
of  Hell — "  bitter,  remorseless,  endless  Hell " — as  the  future 
lot  of  all  who  reject  the  proffered  eternal  life  and  refuse  to 
enter  the  body  of  the  Holy  Spirit  through  union  with  the  visible 
Church. 

In  translating  the  philosophical  idea  of  essential  or  substantial 
into  the  poetic  form  of  a  mythos,  it  is  always  necessary  to  repre- 
sent it  by  infinite  time.  The  will,  in  determining  itself,  affects 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia.'"  187 

itself  for  all  time.  It  determines  itself  completely  in  this  life, 
and  there  is  no  probation  in  the  next.  This  dogma  alone  could 
bring  man  to  a  consciousness  of  his  independent  personality — his 
"  substantia  separata."  In  this  way  the  rnythos  expressed  the 
true  and  profound  doctrine  of  the  determinability  of  human  des- 
tiny by  the  actual  exertion  of  volition  on  the  part  of  the  soul  itself, 
and  of  the  utter  non-effectiveness  of  vague  postponement  and  reli- 
ance on  external  influences.  External  influences  cannot  initiate 
one's  salvation  either  here  or  hereafter,  is  the  doctrine  of  respon- 
sibility. The  initiation  lies  always  in  free  choice. 

There  is  found  no  hope  on  the  line  of  mortal  sin — only  aliena- 
tion more  and  more  profound.  It  is  not  a  progress ;  sin  is  not  a 
necessary  stage  on  the  way  to  growth,  but  a  retrogradation. 
Nevertheless,  it  is  not  extinction — one  can  never  reach  that.  Once 
immortality  is  reached,  the  individual  remains  a  responsible  being 
to  all  eternity.  The  negative  will  of  the  sinner  builds  up  a  wall 
of  fate  about  him,  it  is  true,  but  within  this  wall  he  ever  holds  his 
free  volition,  his  absolute  individuality. 

Dante's  poetic  treatment  of  this  rnythos  forms  one  of  the  few 
great  works  of  all  time. 


188  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

§  46.  Dante's  Mythos  of  the  Formation  of  the  Inferno  and 
the  Purgatorial  Mount. 

Dante  conceives  that  certain  of  the  angels  fell  immediately 
after  creation  ("  Paradiso,"  xxix,  49).  Before  one  could  so  much  as 
count  twenty,  Lucifer  fell.  He  struck  the  earth  under  Jerusalem 
and  hollowed  it  out  to  the  very  centre,  thus  making  the  tunnel- 
shaped  Inferno  and  raising  on  the  opposite  side  in  the  southern 
Atlantic  Ocean  the  mountain  of  Purgatory. 

"  On  this  side  fell  he  down  from  heaven ;  and  here  the  land, 
which  erst  stood  out,  through  fear  of  him  veiled  itself  with  sea 
and  came  to  our  hemisphere ;  and  perhaps,  in  order  to  escape 
from  him,  that  which  on  this  side  appears,  left  here  the  empty 
space,  and  upward  rushed." — (J.  C.,  Tr.),  Inf.,  xxx,  121. 

The  Mountain  of  Purgatory  arises  in  the  southern  Atlantic 
Ocean  ;  for  the  earth,  according  to  his  view,  is  not  8,000  miles  in 
diameter,  but  only  6,500.  (See  for  some  of  the  passages  in  which 
Dante  gives  this  item,  "  Convito,"  ii,  7;  iii,  5.)  In  the  Southern 
Hemisphere  Dante  knows  the  most  remarkable  constellation  of 
stars  there.  He  probably  had  travelled  far  enough  south  to  see 
them  with  his  own  eyes.  He  knows,  too,  the  Precession  of  Equi- 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  189 

noxes  by  which  the  pole  of  the  heavens  changes  so  as  to  bring 
up  the  Southern  Cross  to  the  view  of  Europeans :  "  Seen  only  by 
the  primitive  peoples,"  says  he. 

The  streams  of  sorrow,  wrath,  malice,  fraud,  and  treachery  that 
flow  down  into  this  region  Dante  explains  as  flowing  from  the 
tears  of  the  human  race,  which  he  figures  as  a  gigantic  Man 
standing  within  the  Idsean  mountain  of  Crete  and  looking  toward 
Rome.  He  borrows  the  external  form  of  the  figure  from  the 
vision  of  the  Great  Image  in  Daniel,  which  there  prefigured  the 
fate  of  the  Babylonian  Empire  and  the  world-movement  of  nations 
that  followed  it — the  rise  of  the  Persian  Empire  under  Cyrus,  and 
possibly  the  final  supremacy  of  Rome. 

Daniel  describes  the  King's  Dream:  "This  image's  head  was 
of  fine  gold,  his  breast  and  his  arms  of  silver,  his  belly  and  his 
thighs  of  brass,  his  legs  of  iron,  his  feet  part  of  iron  and  part  of 
clay.  .  .  This  head  of  gold  is  Nebuchadnezzar. 

"  And  after  thee  shall  arise  another  kingdom  inferior  to  thee, 
and  another  third  kingdom  of  brass,  which  shall  bear  rule  over 
all  the  earth. 

"  And  the  fourth  kingdom  shall  be  as  strong  as  iron  ;  forasmuch 


190  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

as  iron  breaketh  in  pieces  and  subdueth  all  things,  and  as  iron 
that  breaketh  all  these,  shall  it  break  in  pieces  and  bruise. 

"  And  whereas  thou  sawest  the  feet  and  toes,  part  of  potter's 
clay  and  part  of  iron,  the  kingdom  shall  be  divided;  but  there 
shall  be  in  it  of  the  strength  of  the  iron,  forasmuch  as  thou 
sawest  the  iron  mixed  with  miry  clay.  .  .  . 

"  And  in  the  days  of  these  kings  shall  the  God  of  Heaven  set 
up  a  kingdom,  which  shall  never  be  destroyed  ;  and  the  kingdom 
shall  not  be  left  to  other  people,  but  it  shall  break  in  pieces  and 
consume  all  these  kingdoms,  and  it  shall  stand  forever.  .  .  ." 

Dante  would  think  of  the  Roman  Empire  and  the  Christian 
Church  as  signified  by  this  kingdom,  which  shall  break  in  pieces 
all  other  kingdoms,  but  which  shall  itself  stand  forever.  The 
Holy  Roman  Empire  is,  as  we  know,  to  Dante  this  kingdom.  It 
was  a  stone  carved  out  of  a  mountain,  and  it  came  to  till  the 
whole  earth,  which  clearly  enough  the  Persian  Empire  never  did, 
for  it  failed  to  conquer  Europe. 

§  47.  Dante's  Mythos  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
Under  the  guidance  of  Virgil's  mythos  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
Dante  had  been  in  the  habit  of  looking  upon  Troy  and  the  Tro- 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia."  191 

jans  as  the  ancestors  of  the  Romans.  Crete,  too,  was  a  still  more 
remote  ancestor — the  nursery  of  Zeus,  the  god  of  civil  order  and 
the  father  of  Minos,  the  first  king  who  made  just  laws  and  secured 
peace  and  harmony  by  their  rigid  execution. 

Hence,  too,  Dante,  in  the  "  Inferno,"  shows  so  much  bitterness 
toward  the  Greek  heroes  and  statesmen,  punishing,  for  example, 
Alexander  and  Pyrrhus  in  the  seething  purple  flood  of  Phlegethon  ; 
Diomede  and  the  great  Ulysses  in  the  bolge  of  evil  counsellors  in 
the  circle  of  fraud. 

In  the  fourteenth  canto  of  the  "  Inferno  "  Dante  explains  the 
origin  of  the  rivers  by  this  mythos  of  Crete  and  the  Image  of  the 
Human  Race,  or  perhaps,  more  accurately,  the  Image  of  Human 
Civil  Government  (as  the  reference  to  Daniel's  vision  seems  to 
indicate) : 

"*  In  the  middle  of  the  sea  lies  a  waste  country,'  he  then  said, 
'  which  is  named  Crete,' '  under  whose  King  the  world  once  was 

1  Virgil,  "  ^Eneid,"  iii,  104 : 

"  Greta  Jovis  magni  medio  jacet  insula  ponto 
Mons  Idaeus  ubi,  et  gentis  cunabula  nostrae ; 
Centum  urbes  habitant  magnas,  uberrima  regna 
Maxirnus  unde  pater,  si  rite  audita  recorder 
Teucrus  Rhceteus  primum  eat  advectus  in  oras." 


192  .    The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

chaste.  A  mountain  is  there,  called  Ida,  which  once  was  glad 
with  waters  and  foliage;  now  it  is  deserted  like  an  antiquated 
thing.  Rhea  of  old  chose  it  for  the  faithful  cradle  of  her  son ; 
and  the  better  to  conceal  him,  when  he  wept,  caused  cries  to  be 
made  on  it. 

"  Within  the  mountain  stands  erect  a  great  Old  Man,  who  keeps 
his  shoulders  turned  toward  Damietta,  and  looks  at  Rome  as  if  it 
were  his  mirror.  His  head  is  shapen  of  fine  gold,  his  arms  and 
his  breast  are  pure  silver ;  then  he  is  of  brass  to  the  cleft ;  from 
thence  downward  he  is  all  of  chosen  iron,  save  that  the  right  foot 
is  of  baked  clay ;  and  he  rests  more  on  this  than  on  the  other. 
Every  part,  except  the  gold,  is  broken  with  a  fissure  that  drops 
tears,  which  collected  perforate  that  grotto.  Their  course  descends 
from  rock  to  rock  into  this  valley.  They  form  Acheron,  Styx, 
and  Phlegethon  ;  then,  by  this  narrow  conduit,  go  down  to  where 
there  is  no  more  descent.  They  form  Cocytus ;  and  thou  shalt 
see  what  kind  of  lake  that  is  ;  here,  therefore,  I  describe  it  not." 
— (J.  C.  Tr.),  Inf.,  xiv,  94-120. 

In  Yirgil  ("  JEueid,"  iii,  104)  we  find  the  suggestion  which  re- 
veals to  us  the  idea  in  Dante's  mind  in  its  entirety :  "  Crete,  the 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia."  193 

island  of  great  Jove,  lies  in  the  middle  of  the  sea,  where  is  Mount 
Ida  and  the  nursery  of  our  race ;  they  inhabit  a  hundred  great 
cities,  most  fertile  realms,  whence  Teucer,  our  first  ancestor,  if 
rightly  I  remember  the  things  I  have  heard,  was  first  carried  to 
the  Rhcetian  coasts  [promontory  of  Troas],  and  there  selected  the 
place  for  his  kingdom.  Ilium  stood  not  yet,"  etc. 

According  to  Apollodorus  (iii,  1,  §  1),  Teutamus,  the  son  of 
Dorus  and  a  descendant  of  Deucalion,  mythic  founder  of  the 
Dorian  race,  came  to  Crate  with  a  Greek  colony.  In  the  time  of 
his  son  Asterion,  Zeus  came  to  Crete  with  Europa  and  became 
father  of  Minos,  Sarpedon,  and  Rhadamanthus,  who  were  adopted 
by  Asterion  upon  his  marriage  with  Europa. 

Zeus,  according  to  the  Greek  mythos,  is  the  divine  founder  of 
civil  order,  and  to  be  son  of  Zeus  is  to  be  a  hero  of  civilization. 
Minos  became  the  greatest  king  of  the  mythic  heroic  period,  being 
the  inventor  of  wonderful  laws  for  the  securing  of  justice.  He 
freed  the  seas  of  pirates. 

The  circumstances  of  his  obtaining  his  kingdom  gave  rise  to 
feuds  symbolized  by  the  story  of  the  wild  bull  of  Crete — probably 
an  independent  freebooter  who  sought  alliance  with  Minos.  The 


194  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

Minotaur  is  the  symbol  of  blood  violence  which  Minos  repressed 
by  shutting  up  the  monster  in  a  labyrinth  wonderfully  con- 
structed. 

§  48.   The  Minotaur  and  the  Labyrinth  in  the  Light  of  this 

Mythos. 

In  the  myth  of  the  labyrinth  we  have  a  symbolic  description  of 
the  nature  offends  and  blood  violence  and  of  the  manner  in  which 
they  are  suppressed  by  a  Jove-nurtured  king.  Within  a  labyrinth 
the  avenues  continually  lead  from  one  into  the  other  without  mak- 
ing any  progress  toward  a  final  goal.  One  goes  forward  and  for- 
ward, but  after  weary  labors  finds  himself  at  length  where  he 
started,  or  even  farther  off  from  his  goal. 

So  long  as  there  was  no  kingly  authority  and  no  just  laws,  feuds 
arose ;  violence  on  the  part  of  one  led  to  retaliation  on  the  part  of 
another,  and  this  to  counter-retaliation.  Each  avenging  of  a  deed 
was  taken  as  a  new  case  of  violence  to  be  avenged  again. 

Thus  the  island  of  Crete  and  the  surrounding  nations  were  in  a 
labyrinth  of  blood  revenge.  The  Minotaur  is  used  by  Dante  as 
symbol  of  blood  revenge,  and  the  labyrinth,  which  is  not  named 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  195 

in  the  "  Divina  Commedia,"  signifies  the  endless  nature  of  feuds 
thus  avenged. 

But  the  labyrinth  has  also  the  meaning  of  a  code  of  justice 
which  imprisons  the  Minotaur;  for  when  this  system  of  blood 
revenge  is  throttled  by  just  laws,  the  State  steps  in  and,  appre- 
hending the  first  aggressor,  makes  a  labyrinth  of  him  by  making 
his  deed  return  upon  him  at  once,  and  thus  rendering  unnecessary 
the  blood  revenge  on  the  part  of  the  injured  one  ;  hence  the  laby- 
rinth in  this  sense  is  a  device  by  which  the  endless  progress  of 
private  revenge  is  stopped  in  its  first  steps — it  is  shut  up  and  the 
labyrinth  is  reduced  to  a  jail  or  prison  conducted  according  to 
just  criminal  laws.  Formerly  all  Crete  was  a  labyrinth  and  all 
the  neighboring  islands  of  the  vEgean  seas  and  the  main-land  were 
infested  by  pirates  and  robber  States  continually  at  feud  with  each 
other.  Minos,  it  is  said,  not  only  checked  piracy  about  Crete,  but 
made  himself  master  of  the  Greek  islands,  and  was  able,  it  seems, 
to  punish  the  blood  violence  and  treachery  even  of  a  colony  like 
Athens.  His  son  Androgeus  was  assassinated  at  Athens  on  account 
of  some  jealousy  or  teud.  Minos  subdued  Megara  and  compelled 
the  Athenians  to  send  every  nine  years  or  oftener  a  tribute  of 


196  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

fourteen  youths  and  maidens  to  be  devoured  by  the  Minotaur — 
that  is  to  say,  confined  in  the  labyrinth  as  hostages,  or  perhaps  exe- 
cuted for  new  deeds  of  violence  done  against  Cretans. 

It  was  the  national  hero  of  Athens,  Theseus,  also  a  law-giver, 
who  slew  this  Minotaur,  at  least  so  far  as  the  Athenian  tribute 
was  concerned — probably  entering  into  a  treaty  by  which  he  sup- 
pressed the  blood  violence  of  his  own  subjects  and  assisted  Minos 
in  his  endeavors  to  suppress  such  violence  everywhere,  and  thus 
put  an  end  to  the  Minotaur  altogether. 

Wonderful  insight,  therefore,  Dante  displays  in  making  the 
Minotaur  or  blood  violence  stand  as  guardian  at  the  entrance  of 
the  circles  of  violence. 

From  this  good  law-maker,  Minos,  descends  the  Trojan  JEneas, 
as  Virgil  asserts  and  Dante  believes,  and  hence  by  direct  descent 
the  Roman  Empire  appointed  by  divine  right  to  give  laws  to  the 
whole  world  and  suppress  the  complex  of  private  revenge  and 
feuds — a  complex  in  the  fact  that  each  avenging  deed  is  a  new 
crime  and  thus  forms  a  labyrinth  out  of  which  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  extricate  the  state.  Dante  knew — bitterly  knew — how 
this  labyrinth  of  blood  revenge  extended  over  his  native  Italy ; 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  197 

cities   divided    by   factions   and    continually    at    war   with   each 
other. 

§  49.  Minos  as  Judge  in  the  Light  of  this  Mythos. 

The  island  of  Crete  has  great  significance  to  Dante  for  these 
reasons  :  He  accordingly  selects  Minos,  as  the  typical  dispenser 
of  justice,  to  preside  over  the  court  of  the  Inferno,  following 
Homer  and  Yirgil  in  this  choice.  Minos  invented  a  code  which 
secured  the  return  of  his  own  deed,  or  at  least  its  symbol,  upon  the 
criminal.  The  sinners,  on  entering  the  presence  of  Minos,  lay  open 
their  secret  lives  to  him.  His  judgment  is  indicated  by  coiling 
about  him  his  tail,  "  making  as  many  circles  round  himself  as  the 
number  of  grades  or  circles  that  the  sinner  will  have  to  descend." 
Minos  symbolically  indicates  that  the  sinner's  own  beastiality  has 
made  its  coil  about  him  and  that  the  sinner's  own  deed  makes  his 
circle  of  hell. 

§  50.  Other  Mythology  Figures  used  by  Dante. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  Virgil  places  in  the  gates  of  his  Inferno 
Centaurs,  Briareus,  the  Chimaera,  the  Lernsean  Hydra,  Harpies, 


198  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

and  the  three-bodied  Geryon — all  indicating  the  instrumentalities 
that  send  men  to  their  death.  Dante  uses  most  of  these  figures 
in  his  own  way,  always  showing  a  profound  insight  into  the  capa- 
city of  the  symbol  for  spiritual  expression. 

THE  CENTAUKS  were  nomadic  peoples,  without  organized  laws 
of  justice,  who  marauded  on  the  Greek  civil  communities  and 
escaped  punishment  on  their  swift  horses;  hence  also  they  are 
symbols  of  violence  of  a  special  kind.  Dante  employs  them  to 
guard  the  banks  of  Phlegethon  and  punish  the  violent.  It  is  the 
fitting  punishment  of  the  violent  that  they  make  for  themselves  an 
environment  of  violence.  The  Centaurs  were  also  teachers  of  the 
Greek  heroes  in  the  arts  of  single  combat,  medicine,  and  music — 
means  useful  to  a  life  of  roving  adventure — but  they  were  not 
teachers  of  laws ;  of  the  art  of  commanding  armies  or  organized 
bodies;  of  anything  specially  useful  to  cities.  Like  the  Cyclops, 
they  symbolize  man  as  individual  apart  from  man  as  social  whole 
— the  little  self  over  against  the  greater  self. 

THE  HAEPIES  are  placed  by  Dante  in  the  doleful  woods  of  the 
suicides  as  symbolic  of  their  hypochondria.  The  gloomy  presage 
of  coming  evil  causes  suicide.  These  are  birds,  airy  creatures, 


Dante's  "  Divina  Commedia."  199 

symbolic  therefore  of  fancy  and  the  future.  They  defile  the  feast 
of  the  present  with  forebodings  of  evil. 

THE  FURIES  and  THE  GORGONS  guard  the  sixth  circle,  from  of 
old  the  symbols  of  all  that  is  destructive  in  violence  against  civil 
order — discord,  slander,  mistrust,  suspicion,  and  deadly  revenge. 
MEDUSA  the  Gorgon  paralyzes  the  beholder — is  it  hardened  rebellion 
against  God  (as  Carlyle  thinks),  is  it  atheism  or  petrifying  scep- 
ticism regarding  immortality  (as  Philalethes  thinks),  or  is  it  simply 
panic  terror  which  deprives  one  of  all  control  of  his  limbs? — 
a  significance  which  the  Greeks  may  have  given  to  the  Medusa 
face.  One  may  see  the  reflection  of  such  panic  fear — i.  e.,  hear  of 
it  at  a  distance,  but  he  must  not  look  upon  it  directly  if  he  would 
escape  its  paralyzing  effects. 

GERYON  is  the  well-described  image  of  fraud  in  Dante's  por- 
traiture. The  ancients  did  not  thus  specially  characterize  him. 
He  was  simply  the  three-bodied  king  of  Hesperia,  who  owned  the 
famous  herd  of  oxen  that  Hercules  obtained.  Perhaps  Dante 
confounded  him  with  Cacus,  the  wily  thief  of  those  oxen  in  Vir- 
gil's story.  lie  is  represented  with  the  face  of  the  just  man,  mild, 
of  aspect.  The  fraudulent  purpose  is  covered  with  a  special  ap- 


200  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

pearance  of  conformity  to  law  and  justice — submission  cf  the  indi- 
vidual will  to  the  general  will  of  the  community.  But  he  has  a 
reptile's  body  covered  with  knots  and  circlets  like  a  lizard  or  a 
toad,  the  paws  of  a  beast,  and  an  envenomed  scorpion  tail.  He 
seeks  not,  like  the  violent,  to  rob  his  fellow-men  directly  and  attack 
the  civil  order  with  his  individual  might.  But  he  seeks  to  use 
the  civil  order  against  itself,  under  a  semblance  of  obedience  to  it 
to  gain  the  faith  of  men  and  then  abuse  their  confidence.  This, 
of  course,  will  weaken  their  confidence  in  civil  order.  While 
direct  violence  forces  every  one  to  trust  civil  order  all  the  more 
and  draw  close  to  the  protecting  shelter  of  the  state,  Fraud,  on 
the  other  hand,  weakens  the  faith  of  the  citizen  in  the  power  of 
the  State  to  protect  him.  For,  see,  have  not  I  been  wronged  under 
the  semblance  of  mild-faced  justice  ? 

THE  GIANTS  in  the  lowest  round  have  already  been  mentioned 
as  typical  of  the  entirely  savage  state  of  society,  utterly  isolated 
human  life.  The  individual  by  himself  must  do  all  for  himself. 
He  cannot  share  with  others  the  conquest  of  nature.  It  is  his 
own  individual  might  against  the  world.  The  subduing  of  wild 
beasts,  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  the  arts  of  manufacture — in  all 


Daniels  "Divina  Coinmedia"  201 

these  he  is  unaided.  Worse  than  all,  he  is  deprived  of  human  in- 
tercourse and  does  not  inherit  the  accumulated  wisdom  and  expe- 
rience of  the  human  race.  Homer,  as  we  saw,  has  painted  this 
state  of  savagery  in  the  Cyclops. 

CERBERUS  furnishes  a  familiar  type  of  greed  in  general.  Dante, 
after  Virgil,  makes  him  the  type  of  intemperance  and  gluttony. 

PLUTUS,  the  ancient  god  of  wealth,  presides  over  the  fourth  cir- 
cle of  the  "  Inferno."  The  avaricious  make  property  their  god ; 
it  should  be  their  means  for  achieving  earthly  freedom  and  leisure 
for  divine  works  such  as  tend  to  the  spiritual  good  of  one's  fellow- 
men  and  one's  own  growth  in  wisdom.  The  prodigal  misuse  their 
property  and  are  always  in  want,  or  "hard  up,"  as  the  slang 
phrase  has  it.  Hence  they  are  always  trying  to  come  at  a  little 
money  to  help  them  over  a  "  tight  place."  Hence,  too,  they  are 
always  giving  their  minds  to  getting  property,  and  are  in  the  same 
hell  with  the  avaricious.  Both  long  for  property  in  the  same 
degree. 

CHARON,  the  infernal  ferrymari,  is  likewise  borrowed  from  Vir- 
gil, and  is  not  found  in  the  early  Greek  poets.  His  fiery  eyes  and 
wheels  of  flame — typical  of  the  red- weeping  eyes  of  mourners  for 


202  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

the  dead,  or  possibly  a  symbol  of  his  keen  watchfulness  required 
to  separate  (in  Virgil's  "Inferno")  the  souls  whose  bodies  are 
buried  with  due  ceremony  from  those  unsepultured  ;  or  in  Dante's 
"  Inferno,"  to  exclude  the  souls  of  the  pusillanimous  from  his  boat 
— this  circumstance  of  the  flaming  eyes  is  also  borrowed  from 
Virgil. 

§  51.  The  Mythos  of  Dante's  "  Purgatorio" 
The  finest  portion  of  the  "  Divina  Com  media"  is  unquestionably 
the  Purgatory,  but  it  needs  the  "  Inferno  "  to  precede  it  for  the 
sake  of  effect.  It  is  filled  with  the  light  of  the  stars,  the  verdure 
of  spring,  growth  of  character,  and  the  aspiration  for  perfection. 
In  it  the  human  will  shows  its  true  power  to  make  the  years  re- 
enforce  the  days,  while  in  the  "  Inferno  "  there  is  constant  self-con- 
tradiction of  the  will  and  constant  building  up  of  Fate  between 
man  and  society. 

The  mythos  of  Purgatory  is  more  entirely  Dante's  work  than 
that  of  the  "  Inferno."  He  found  it  a  shadowy  middle  state  ot 
the  soul,  and  built  it  up  into  a  systematic  structure,  definitely  out- 
lined in  all  its  phases.  It  is  the  true  state  of  man  as  a  condition 
of  perpetual  education  in  holiness  here  and  hereafter.  All  men 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia."  203 

who  are  struggling  here  in  the  world  with  an  earnest  aspiration 
for  spiritual  growth  can  find  no  book  to  compare  with  the  second 
part  of  Dante's  Poem.  In  climbing  the  steep  sides  of  this  mount- 
ain the  air  continually  grows  purer  and  the  view  wider  and  less 
obstructed.  On  the  summit  is  the  terrestrial  paradise  of  the 
Church  symbolizing  the  invisible  Church,  of  all  sincere  laborers 
for  good  on  earth.  The  Church  on  earth  holds  humanity  in  so 
far  as  it  lives  in  the  contemplation  of  the  divine  and  in  the  process 
of  realizing  the  divine  nature  in  the  will  and  in  the  heart.  Dante 
collects  in  a  complex  symbol  the  various  ceremonial  devices  of 
the  Church — almost  mechanically,  in  fact.  It  is  an  allegory 
rather  than  a  poetic  symbol.  But  he  adds  dramatic  action  to  it 
first  by  introducing  the  scene  between  Dante  and  Beatrice,  sec- 
ondly by  the  dumb  show  of  the  history  of  the  Church — the  trag- 
edy of  its  corruption,  its  seizure  by  France,  and  its  transfer  from 
Rome  to  Avignon. 

§52.  The  Mythos  of  Dante's  " Paradiso" — Gnosticism. 

The  mythos  of  the  "  Paradiso  "  is  constructed  on  a  wholly  new 
plan.      There  is  no  hint  of  it  elsewhere  except  in  the  Platonic 


204  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

myth  in  the  "  Phsedo  "  (the  allusion  to  the  complete  disembodi- 
ment of  the  soul).  The  Mysticism  of  sixteen  hundred  years  enters 
it  as  material. 

Gnosticism  represented  the  first  attempt  to  reconcile  Christian- 
ity with  philosophy,  as  Neoplatonism  represented  a  later  attempt 
on  the  part  of  Greek  Philosophy  to  reach  the  Oriental  unity  by 
transcending  the  first  principle  of  Plato  and  Aristotle. 

Gnosticism  and  Neoplatonism,  accordingly,  have  substantially 
the  same  problem  before  them.  Both  systems  agree  in  adopting 
the  doctrine  of  Philo  that  God  is  exhalted  above  virtue  and  knowl- 
edge, and  even  above  good  and  evil  altogether.  Plato  had  iden- 
tified God  with  the  Absolute  Good,  while  Aristotle  had  made  him 
absolute  reason. 

From  God,  according  to  Gnosticism  and  Neoplatonism,  there 
emanates  Nous  as  His  image,  and  then  directly  or  after  some  in- 
terval the  Psyche  or  Soul,  from  which  emanates  finally  matter  or 
body  from  the  soul  as  the  soul's  object,  created  result,  or  achieve- 
ment. 

These  four  cardinal  points  are  common  to  all  Gnostic  and  Neo- 
platonist  systems ;  but  great  diversity  exists  in  regard  to  intermedi- 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia."  205 

ate  steps  and  in  regard  to  names  and  definitions.  Gnosticism  likes 
to  use  the  word  "  aeon  "  (aldav)  where  Platonism  likes  the  word 
u  idea."  By  aeon  it  means  individual  or  complete  cycle  of  activ- 
ity— a  self-determined  being  (substantia  separata),  in  short.  There 
may  be  many  ideas  or  seons,  or  complete  cycles  of  process,  between 
the  Nous  or  Reason  and  the  Soul.  There  are,  in  fact,  twenty-eight 
of  these  in  the  system  of  Yalentinus  (who  came  to  Rome  from  Al- 
exandria about  the  year  140  A.  D.).  He  made  thirty  aeons  in  all — 
wishing  to  symbolize  the  thirty  years  of  Christ's  life,  as  is  said, 
somewhat  as  Dante  wished  to  do  this  by  the  number  thirty-three 
(the  number  of  the  cantos  in  each  part  of  the  "  Divina  Commedia  "). 
These  seons  were  yoked  together  in  pairs,  each  pair  being  called 
a  syzigy,  such  a  syzigy  being,  for  example :  1.  Truth  (a\r)6eui). 
+  2.  Reason  (Now).  These  beget  the  second  syzigy.  3.  The  crea- 
tive word  (\0709).  -f  4.  Life  (£o>rj}  The  Word  and  Life  beget 
the  third  syzigy.  5.  Man  (avOptoTros).  +6.  Church  (eKK\r)(ria),  and 
so  on  until  one  comes  to  Sophia  (2,o<f>ta)  or  wisdom,  which  is  the 
youngest  of  the  third  division  of  eeons  and  (we  are  curious  to 
learn)  is  conscious  of  her  remoteness  from  God,  and  hence  flies 
toward  God,  the  source  of  emanation.  Wisdom  proceeds  to  imi- 


2<>6  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

tate  the  other  aeons  by  creating,  but  begets  only  chaos  and  con- 
fusion. In  her  grief  at  this  dreadful  result  the  other  aeons  take 
pity  and  conspire  with  God  to  produce  two  new  aeons — Christ  and 
the  Holy  Spirit,  who  redeem  the  world  of  chaos  and  confusion, 
acting  as  the  Demiurgos  or  world-builder.  Here  we  have  a  my- 
thos  of  the  fall  into  h'nitude — the  lapse  from  the  One  to  the  Many, 
from  the  Perfect  to  the  Imperfect,  and  the  redemption  from  the 
latter. 

In  Proclus's  system  there  are  many  unities  issuing  from  the 
primal  essence — all  above  life  and  reason  and  the  power  of  compre- 
hension. Then  there  are  many  triads  corresponding  to  aeons  be- 
tween reason  and  matter.  Marcion  of  Pontus  had  no  aeons  in  his 
system  of  Gnosticism,  but  retained  the  Demiurgos  or  world-maker 
(as  Jehovah  of  the  Old  Testament  who  is  opposed  to  Christ  as 
Savior). 

The  emanation  theories  of  both  Gnosticism  and  Neoplatonism 
have  the  principle  of  Lapse  as  the  principle  of  their  philosophic 
method,  and  not  the  principle  of  self-determination,  which  is  the 
true  principle  of  philosophic  method.  The  principle  of  Lapse 
finds  only  a  descending  scale  and  is  obliged  to  introduce  an  arbi- 


Dante's  " Divina  Commedia"  207 

trary  and  miraculous  interference  into  its  world-order,  in  order  to 
explain  progressive  development  and  redemption.  The  principle 
of  self-determination  shows  us  an  ascending  scale,  all  of  whose 
steps  are  miraculous  and  yet  none  of  them  arbitrary. 

In  the  later  forms  of  Neoplatonism  there  is  a  slight  trace  of  re- 
turn toward  the  pure  doctrines  of  Aristotle  and  Plato.  The  pupils 
of  Plutarch  of  Athens  seem  to  have  learned  from  him  that  Plato 
and  Aristotle  substantially  agree  in  their  world-view.  Syrianus 
and  Hierocles,  of  Alexandria,  the  former  the  teacher  of  Proclus, 
both  recognize  this  fact,  and  Hierocles  insists  that  Ammonius 
Saccas,  the  founder  of  Neoplatonism,  proved  once  for  all  the  sub- 
stantial agreement  of  the  two  great  Greek  philosophers.  Proclus 
in  his  great  work  on  the  theology  of  Plato,  treating  chiefly  of  the 
dialogue  of  "  Parmenides,"  has  undertaken,  however,  to  show  that 
Plato  himself  holds  the  doctrine  of  a  primal  essence  above  reason 
in  several  of  his  works;  such  an  essence  would,  of  course,  be  un- 
revealed  and  unrevealable,  and  thus  could  not  be  the  God  of 
Christianity.  Proclus  lived  a  century  and  a  half  after  Christian- 
ity had  become  the  state  religion,  and  the  Neoplatonic  school  at 
Athens  was  closed  in  529  by  Justinian,  forty-four  years  after  the 


208  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

death  of  Proclus.  The  influence  of  the  school  continued  into 
Christian  philosophy  and  mysticism  for  many  centuries,  the  chief 
channel  through  which  this  influence  flowed  being  the  writings  of 
the  Pseudo-Dion  ysius,  about  whom  Dante  readers  hear  so  much. 

§  53.  The  Mythos  of  the  "  Paradiso  "  developed  in  the  Doctrine 
of  the  Celestial  Hierarchies. 

The  chief  work  of  Dionysius,  according  to  historians,  must  have 
been  written  after  the  year  450,  because  it  contains  expressions 
used  in  the  Council  of  Chalcedon  in  451. '  Purporting  to  be 
written  by  the  first  bishop  of  Athens,  a  convert  of  St.  Paul,  the 
work  exercised  great  authority.  Its  chief  doctrine  is  that  of 
the  fourfold  division  of  natures  into  (1)  that  which  is  created  and 


1  The  following  is  condensed  from  Ueberweg's  account :  "  The  writings  that  purport 
to  be  the  works  of  Dionysius  the  Areopagite  of  Athens  (Acts,  xvii,  34),  first  Bishop  of 
Athens,  are  mentioned  first  in  the  year  A.  D.  532.  They  were  accepted  as  genuine  and 
of  high  authority  on  account  of  the  connection  of  their  supposed  author  with  Paul. 
They  gained  credit  in  the  Church  in  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries  and  after  a  commen- 
tary had  been  written  on  them  by  Maximus  Confessor  early  in  the  seventh  century. 
Laurentius  Valla,  about  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  asserted  their  spuriousness, 
which  was  demonstrated  afterward  by  Morinus,  Dallaeus,  and  others." 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  209 

does  not  create — matter ;  (2)  that  which  is  created  but  creates 
again,  as,  for  example,  souls ;  (3)  that  which  creates  but  is  not  cre- 
ated, as  Christ,  the  Logos  ;  and  (4)  that  which  neither  creates  nor 
is  created,  as  the  Absolute  One  or  the  Father.  Here  is  Neopla- 
tonism  in  its  most  heretical  form. 

The  highest  cannot  be  called  by  a  name,  according  to  Diony- 
sins.  It  may  be  spoken  of  symbolically  only.  It  is  above  truth 
and  above  goodness ;  nor  does  it  create. 

Through  the  thinking  of  the  Gnostics  and  Neoplatonists,  using 
the  results  of  Plato  and  Aristotle  and  endeavoring  to  solve  the 
problems  of  Christianity  by  them,  arose  a  new  mythos — a  mythos 
of  symbolic  thinking  which  came  over  into  Christian  Theology 
as  the  doctrine  of  the  Celestial  Hierarchy.  On  this  mythos  Dante 
has  constructed  his  "  Paradise."  It  is  modified  to  meet  the  wants 
of  Christian  doctrine  in  such  a  manner  that  what  were  emanating 
./Eons  or  Ideas  become  one  hierarchy  of  Angels,  consisting  of  nine 
separate  orders,  divided,  according  to  office  and  participation  in 
divine  gifts,  into  three  triads. 

The  highest  triad  behold  God's  judgments  directly  and  are 
called  THRONES  ;  but  there  are  two  grades  of  excellence  above  the 


210  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

common  rank  of  these — to  wit,  CHERUBIM,  who  are  filled  perfectly 
with  divine  light,  and  hence  comprehend  most.  The  SERAPHS  are 
filled  more  especially  with  divine  charity  and  excel  in  will  power. 
The  common  angels  of  this  class  are  called  THRONES. 

The  second  triad  are  distinguished  for  announcing  things  divine, 
and  are  called  POWERS,  the  common  principle  of  all  being  this. 
But  elevated  to  an  extraordinary  degree  are  DOMINIONS,  who  are 
supreme  in  ability  to  distinguish  the  proper  order  and  fitness  of 
what  is  to  be  done.  Then,  secondly,  the  VIRTUES,  who  are  emi- 
nent in  providing  the  faculty  of  fulfilling  or  in  planning  the 
means. 

The  lowest  triad  has  the  common  function  of  arranging  and 
executing  the  duties  of  the  angelic  ministry  so  far  as  it  deals 
directly  with  men.  ANGELS  are  the  common  principle,  ARCH- 
ANGELS the  superior,  and  PRINCIPALITIES  the  highest  directors  of 
this  function  of  angelic  ministry. 

These  bizarre  expressions  used  to  name  the  different  degrees  of 
celestial  perfection  arose  in  the  interpretation  of  obscure  passages 
in  St.  Paul's  writings. 

In  "  Romans  "  we  have  a  passage  speaking  of  "  death,  life,  angels, 


Dante's  "Divina  Commedia"  211 

principalities,  powers,  things  present  and  things  to  come,"  and  a 
still  more  remarkable  passage  in  Colossians  (i,  16,  17) :  "  By  him 
were  all  things  created  that  are  in  heaven  or  that  are  in  earth, 
visible  and  invisible,  whether  they  be  thrones  or  dominions 
or  principalities  or  powers.  All  things  were  created  by  him 
and  for  him.  He  is  before  all  things,  and  by  him  all  things 
consist." 

This  passage  is  otherwise  famous  as  the  most  important  place  in 
which  St.  Paul  gives  his  version  of  St.  John's  doctrine  of  the 
Word  or  Logos,  which  was  in  the  beginning  and  which  made  all 
created  things. 

§  54.  The  Heretical  Tendency  in  this  Mythos. 

It  is  essential  to  note  that  the  hierarchy  may  be  interpreted  to 
mean  that  the  highest,  or  the  THRONES  (Seraphim,  Cherubim, 
Thrones),  are  of  an  angelic  ministry  more  removed  from  mediation 
with  what  is  below — more  immediate  in  their  contemplation  of 
the  divine.  This  is  heretical  when  the  mediation  is  denied — i.  e., 
when  it  is  thought  to  be  more  divine  to  be  above  and  apart  from 
the  world  of  humanity — but  not  heresy  when  it  is  held  that 


212  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

"  Thrones  "  complete  their  mediation  perfectly,  and  corae  to  use 
their  power  to  elevate  fallen  humanity,  and  are  not  held  aloof  as 
through  fear  of  contamination  by  contact  with  sinners.  The 
Highest  Logos  goes  down  into  the  manger  of  Space  and  Time, 
and  raises  all  up — as  contemplative  Cherub,  the  Logos  pierces 
clear  through  the  mediation  of  time  and  space  intellectually  and 
philosophically  and  sees  the  face  of  God.  As  Seraph  it  loves  God 
through  loving  all  creation,  down  to  the  lowest  insect  or  plant  or 
clod. 

Seraph  and  Cherub  are  of  the  highest  triad,  because  they  make 
the  deepest  and  completest  mediation  and  see  clearest  the  divine 
shining  through  creation.  They  can  see  the  praise  of  God  even 
in  sin  and  evil.  But  the  danger  of  heresy  lurks  in  this  doctrine. 
If  it  is  held  that  the  Cherubim  see  God  directly  face  to  face  with- 
out the  mediation  of  creation,  then  mere  quietism  is  reached. 
Buddhism  holds  that  the  highest  states  of  perfection  for  its  saints 
are  most  aloof  from  the  world  of  man  and  nature. 

"  From  the  lowest  to  the  highest  stations  of  human  activity,  to 
serve  as  a  servant  who  does  menial  work  is  everywhere  necessary. 
For  the  lowest  class  of  laborers,  whatever  they  do  is  only  a  trade ; 


Dante's  "Divina,  Commedia"  213 

for  the  next  higher  it  is  an  art ;  and  for  the  highest,  whatever  they 
do  is  to  them  the  image  of  the  totality." — (Paraphrase  of  one  of 
Goethe's  sayings.) 

Hence  it  is  not  the  angels,  archangels,  and  principalities  that 
make  the  human  mediation  most  perfectly.  It  is  to  them  a 
"  trade."  But  the  powers,  virtues,  and  dominions  are  higher 
toward  a  perfect  mediation  and  can  go  down  lower  into  the  depths 
safely  to  bring  up  the  lowest.  But  the  thrones  can  make  the 
complete  mediation  from  lowest  to  highest. 

Dante  has  connected  this  artificial  system  (which  refuses,  even 
in  the  expositions  of  its  greatest  disciples,  to  take  on  a  perfectly 
rational  and  logical  form)  to  the  heavens  of  the  Ptolemaic  system, 
and  thereby  fastened  his  degrees  of  spiritual  perfection  to  astro- 
nomical distinctions  observable  by  all  men.  In  the  "Convito" 
second  treatise,  Chapter  xiv,  he  has  stated  in  detail  his  astronomi- 
cal theory. 

That  there  remained  a  sediment  of  Neoplatonism,  and  hence  of 
Oriental  thinking,  in  Dante's  mind,  even  after  the  chidings  of 
Beatrice  in  the  Terrestrial  Paradise,  and  perhaps,  too,  even  in  the 
teachings  of  Beatrice  herself  in  the  twenty-eighth  canto  of  the 


214  The  Spiritual  Sense  of 

"Paradise,"  may  well  be  believed.  But  the  main  great  points  of 
his  theology,  founded  on  Aristotle  as  interpreted  by  the  School- 
men, will  stand  the  scrutiny  of  all  time. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Divine  form  or  the  self-activity  of  the  ab- 
solute involves  the  common  nature  of  man  and  God — or  God  as 
divine-human.  This  is  the  great  central  truth  (of  which  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Trinity  is  the  symbol)  on  which  all  modern  civiliza- 
tion is  built  as  its  open  secret. 

§  55.  The  Symbol  of  the  Trinity  embodies   the  Highest  Philo- 
sophic Truth. 

God  the  absolute  reason  is  perfect  knowing  and  willing  in  one 
— what  he  knows  he  creates ;  for  his  knowing  causes  to  be,  that 
which  he  intellectually  perceives.  His  intuition  of  himself  then 
contemplates  the  eternal  Word — the  Second  Person — equal  in  all 
respects  to  himself.  The  Second  Person,  the  Logos,  knows  and 
wills  likewise  himself,  and  thus  arises  a  Third  Person.  But  a  dif- 
ference makes  its  appearance  here  ;  the  Second  Person  knows  him- 
self as  having  been  begotten,  in  the  timeless  past  of  "  The  Be- 
ginning," as  having  arisen  through  all  stages  of  imperfection  up 


Daniels  "Divina  Commedia"  215 

to  the  highest.  This  knowledge  is  also  creation,  and  the  Word 
creates  a  world  of  imperfect  beings  in  the  form  of  evolution  from 
pure  space  and  time  up  to  the  highest  and  holiest  on  earth — the 
"  New  Jerusalem  "—the  "  City  of  God,"  the  "  Invisible  Church  " 
whose  spirit  is  the  Holy  Spirit  or  the  Third  Person.  The  world 
of  man  and  nature  thus  belongs  to  the  processio — to  the  hyposta- 
sis  of  derivation  or  the  genesis  of  the  Eternal  Word.  The  Logos, 
contemplating  its  own  derivation,  logically  implied,  causes  it  to  be, 
as  an  actual  creation  in  Time  and  Space.  As  the  Holy  Spirit 
proceeds  from  all  eternity,  it  is  not  a  generation,  but  a  procession 
always  complete,  but  always  continuing.  Here  is  the  highest 
view  possible  of  human  nature;  it  is  part  of  the  procession  of  the 
Holy  Spirit. 

Man  reaches  perfection  in  the  infinite,  eternal,  immortal,  and 
invisible  Church. 

This  is  the  river  and  the  Great  White  Rose  of  Paradise. 

The  symbol  of  philosophy  as  the  knowledge  of  the  highest 
truth  is  Beatrice,  and  Dante  has  recorded  his  conviction  that 
this  highest  truth  is  revealed  and  can  be  known  in  the  following 
words : 


216    The  Spiritual  Sense  of  Dante's  "Divina  Commedia." 

"  I  see  well  that  our  intellect  is  never  sated  if  the  truth  does 
not  illuminate  it,  beyond  whose  circuit  no  truth  exists.  In  that 
truth  it  reposes  as  a  wild  animal  in  its  lair,  as  soon  as  it  has 
reached  it.  And  it  can  reach  it,  for  were  this  not  so  all  desire 
would  be  created  in  vain  "  ("  Paradise,"  iv,  124^129). 


FINIS. 


